Ban on political rallies a clear abuse of the law – NAREP

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NAREP
NAREP

The National Restoration Party (NAREP) has described the ban on political party rallies by deputy Inspector general of police Solomon Jere on Sunday, which was later overruled by the Electoral Commission of Zambia as a clear indication of continued abuse of misapplication of the law by government.

NAREP National Chairperson Joseph Mushalika has told Qfm News that the unsuccessful attempt shows the extent to which the current government is disregarding the rule of law.

Mr. Mushalika says it is unfortunate for Dr. Jere to engage in unprofessional conduct by undertaking unpopular decisions which have no legal backing.

He says Dr. Jere should not have made the decision in the first place in order to spare himself from embarrassment.

Mr. Mushalika says what is important is to establish causes of political violence.

The Electoral Commission of Zambia yesterday overruled the Zambia Police’s ban on political rallies in the by-elections.

The ECZ stated that is the only organisation mandated to set up an election time table, including a campaign timetable which should be respected by all stakeholders without exception.

16 COMMENTS

  1. I have noticed some serious overreach in terms of jurisdiction by the many bodies in this country since PF took over, The police are so desperate to impress someone that they forget their place in society. There is no separation of powers as it were any longer that discernible.

  2. Actually there are a lot of gray laws in Zambia (such as the Public Order Act). When you have a law that gives explicit powers over a vague statute you know there is trouble. I am sure most of us have seen contracts that read “…and any other duty as may be assigned.” That is typically how most of our laws are fashioned. They are always open to interpretation like religious script.

    • Public Order Act: Opposition leaders are always crying about this legislation and non of their MPs has raised a motion to do away with it. Double standards.

  3. Dr. Jere was right!!! Now that life had been lost in Livingstone what is your comment. You are calling the same Police you condemned of their action to come in when all they tried to do was to save life!!!!

    • PF have themselves to blame. Why did PF hire thugs in Lusaka to go and cause havoc in Livingstone? Why has PF directed FRA to give free maize to their candidate in Livingstone in order to distribute free beer to make their cadres drunk and unruly and in the long run result in a death. I think PF should ask themselves before even arresting the UPND officials because they will just embarrass themselves in the end. Right now PF together with their Police/PF cadres have found themselves in an embarrassing situation.

    • Finshi Mwalechita ku camp yabene? tamwakwete ifyakulya? you will all die if you dont change. Dont think your friends are fools. Why go to your friends camp? PF need to move away from the vigilante and chawama saga mentality. Ba PF mulepwa just to satisfy the egos of the powers that be. Anyway, we were constables before we became cleaners at a station.

  4. People are getting killed and all you care about it is the goddamn rally!! Loss of life should not be taken lightly, ECZ has no mandate to maintain law and order it is the job of the police. We are heading in the wrong direction because of greedy politicians who justify violence to further their political ambitions. The police read the mood right and took precautions by banning rallies, ECZ misjudged everything and now we have lost a life. There are just too many people trying to tell the police how to do their job and condemning them when they do the right thing, prevention is better than cure and we should be preventing violence from happening.

  5. There are only two possibilities and the police must tell us which one is the case: either
    1. Zambia Police are poorly trained in crowd control matters, or
    2. They are so partisan that they could’nt issue permits to the two parties on different days for fear of embarrassing their principals, whose numbers are already known to have been dwarfed by those of the UPND.

  6. whn DPIG banned the rallies called me all sorts of names, u forgot that he had assessed the situation and prompted to behave like he did to save the lives of so many people. as u ejoy ur day there is no peace in Lstone.

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