A low voter turnout has characterised the Lubwa ward by election, where voting is underway in Kitwe District on the Copperbelt Province.
Polling stations opened at exactly 06:00 hours, but all the stations have so far recorded a low turnout except for Mwaiseni polling station in Zambia Compound where the turn was overwhelming by 11:00 hours.
A check by ZANIS at all the 5 polling stations in Nkana East, found few people queuing up to vote while at Mwaiseni polling station, the number of people waiting to vote was quite overwhelming.
The atmosphere however, in all the polling stations is calm and peaceful as the police are keeping vigil of the situation.
Lubwa ward has six polling stations, with a total number of 7,490 registered voters.
Three political parties are contesting the Lubwa seat in the ongoing by-election that is the Patriotic Front (PF), United Party for National Development (UPND) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Julius Kaunda is contesting on the PF ticket, UPND has Brian Mwewa while the one contesting on the NDC ticket is Jonathan Banda.
The Lubwa ward seat fell vacant following the demise of Area Councillor Godfridah Chulu in May this year.
In the Lwingishi Ward by election in Mansa Central Constituency, in Luapula Province, Mansa District Electoral Officer Sombo Kaela has revealed that all the seven polling stations in the ward opened at exactly 06:00 hours, following the successful deployment of poll staff yesterday.
Mrs Kaela says the voter turnout is good and pointed out Mufuma and Chisongo polling stations where long queues when seen at the time of opening.
The District Electoral Officer says so far all is going on well and that more people are still trekking to the polling stations to cast their votes.
Lwingishi ward has a total of 4481 voters and seven polling stations.
The Lwingishi ward by-election comes following the death of Patriotic Front Lwingishi Ward Councillor Davies Mwenda two months ago.
And in the Mayembe ward by-election in Shiwangandu District started on a low note this morning.
Kapisha polling station Presiding Officer Peter Musonda officially announced the start of voting at exactly 06:00 hours, with the first vote cast at 06:10 hours.
At Lukaka polling station 10 had cast their votes by 09:00 hours, while at Chilombo polling station, 32 had cast their votes by 09:25 hours.
A check again at Kapisha five hours later, revealed that the number of people coming to cast their votes improved with 150 having already cast their votes, with 22 others still waiting in line.
At Lukalashi polling station, 50 people had cast their votes by 10:40 hours.
District Electoral Officer Mary Sinkala told the Zambia News and Information Services (ZANIS) in an interview that more people are expected to cast their votes this morning.
The cold weather and farming activities have been blamed for the low voter turnout experienced in the early hours of the morning.
Mayembe ward has a total of 1609 registered voters.
The Mayembe seat is being contested by the Patriotic Front (PF) with candidate Joseph Nsofwa while United Party for National Development (UPND) has Cynthia Mwamba contesting on their seat.
The Mayembe seat fell vacant following the death of the incumbent
Refresh Mukupa on May 10, 2019, who died in a road traffic accident.
Both participating political parties have described the polls as peaceful.
How can there be high voter turn out when people are busy with work? They should consider extending voting hours if elections are taking place on a working day like this one!!
PF has won Lubwa
Congratulations PF for winning Lubwa Ward in Kitwe, Kopala. Sends a strong signal to Chimbwili and his ally hechi hechi.