As the country prepares for tomorrow’s first Local Council (LC) elections since the multiparty political system was restored in 2005, tension is brewing in various areas following the fear by voters to publicly stand behind candidates of their choice as this method could stir hatred among voters and contestants.
However the spokesperson of Electoral Commission Jotham Taremwa while talking to NTV has asked voters to freely line-up behind the candidates of their choice saying that the ‘fears’ are just hypothetical.
‘’There is nothing unique about lining up. Even under the ballot arrangement, people know who support them those who don’t support them. There is nothing different because people know each other in the villages, they know who likes who, they know who hates who, that is public knowledge. The fear is just being created by some quotas but it’s not there. Whoever is talking about the fears is in a dilemma of who to vote after promising support to more than two contestants’’
He further said that LC women elections were very peaceful and the same is expected for tomorrow’s LC1 elections.