MMD President Nevers Mumba says the country risks having violent political campaigns if the Public Order Act is not changed ahead of the 11th August 2016 elections.
Speaking when he featured on a special program on Hot FM radio, Dr. Mumba said the POA has to be changed before the beginning of the campaigns for the General elections to allow other political players campaign freely.
He said failure to remove or making it ineffective, the Act is likely to be the major trigger for political violence in the coming months.
“The Public Order Act must be changed now prior to the beginning of election campaigns. The President and the IG can make a decision since the law is not harmful in its current state, the MMD changed that law to ensure that it does not require any political organization to obtain a permit except notify the police and if the police, like the excuse they are giving, do not have manpower to marshal the meetings the same legislation suggests that the political party organizes its own marshals.
“Failure to remove that law or make it ineffective, so that it is not used on your opponents, is going to be the major trigger for violence and insecurity in the country. If we don’t deal with it now the elections will not be violent free because the police do not understand this, they just want to keep their jobs, they want to impress the government in place and they don’t care about what we think or say so in order to keep their jobs they are willing to do anything even being unreasonable like they were in Lundazi were one officer throw a tear gas canister in a hall were people were having a peaceful meeting. Those things could continue if the President and the Inspector General of Police do not make it categorically clear to the police to leave all the political players alone, ” he said.
On the amended constitution Dr. Mumba said there is no constitution which is perfect and that Parliament exists to repeal and make new laws hence people should realise that not everything should be in the document for people to say their views have been taken on board.
He said trying to shoot down the amended constitution is a betrayal of Zambians because the PF did not come up with the document but that it was the people who wanted most of the progressive clause which are in the amended constitution.
And Dr. Mumba has advised political parties not to be arrogant by lying to themselves that they are more popular hence will be the outright victors in the elections.
He said the political dynamics have changed with the coming in of the running mate and 50%+1 vote clauses and that those using the arrogance of numbers will be shocked.
“What we have said as MMD is that with the signing of the new constitution all major parties must build bridges to survive and become part of the process. There is no big, small or medium political party now in view of what is going on and I think that it is the skillful political party which is not arrogant and self conceited to feel that them along are going to form government. As a matter of fact the shock will be that those who think will form government and using arrogance or conceit of saying we had so many votes last year so we just need so many votes, that is not how democracy works, it is not just adding up votes, this entire scenario is going to shift because of the new constitution,” he said.
On the economic front, the opposition leader called on President Lungu to give direction on what people should expect in terms of the economic challenges being faced in the country.
He said people should be told what their government is doing in order to turn around the economy as opposed to letting them speculate. He said that with information people are able to make economic decisions without negative repercussions.
He also called on the people of Zambia to consider giving the former ruling party a vote because they have a track record and are a proven party which was able to turn around the country’s economic fortunes after it took over from UNIP under difficult circumstances.
Wait… I thought your party introduced the POA? It stings don’t it??
No but seriously the POA needs to go!
We need to sign a petition to force PF and police to stop abusing POA to silence opposition now.
Seriously people are angry more especially those on the copper belt for being lied to by PF and then their houses demolished in rainy season. To make matters worse the PF fails to pay students their allowances a result of which the strike ensues.
POA must go . Every party should demand that POA goes now. If Lungu and police fail to act we need to organise a mother of demonstrations in all towns villages and cities to show that POA can and will be defied against all odds.
Zambia s human rights record is just short of being critical and the international community is watching with keen interest.
Is Zambia another Zimbabwe in the making under PF a sister party to ZANUPF?
VIVA UPND…
Why dont parties sue the police IG for breaching and misinterpreting the POA to deliberately stifle dissent in Zambia?
Surerly the courts mudt prevail and ban police from breaking up gatherings as long as the organisers have notified the police.
VIVA UPND and HH team.
Nevers Mumba should just accept that MMD is swallowed up by PF & Bandit Davies Chama yapped so.
MMD is dead & never will they ever bounce back in power again.
Viva UPND & HH, nothing else but HH.
The Skeleton Key
~206~
4 months left.
@ one Zambia one tobwa what type of English is that? Ati it stings don’t it?
Comment: MMD will not count in these coming polls.It is techaniclly dead as it is now a one man party whose president is very arrogant.
MMD stands out as my most favourite political party to this day. If I had the means, I would love to help MMD get back to its former glory days. Nevers should just hold on a bit longer because MMD will be the biggest opposition as soon as HH loses again in August. VIVA MMD!
@One Zambia _ MMD Did not introduce the POA. It’s existed from the time of colonialism as the whites used it against black gatherings. UNIP maintained but MMD revised to meet changing needs.In case u are young, we used to apply 4 permits 4 any gathering and the police had the power to refuse to grant u permission to gather even 4 church gatherings.MMD introduced the just notify the police and go and gather whether they like it or not.
It’s sad to know Africans have not changed enough to abolish the Act!! Blooming savages ….as pith helmeted English would argue!
There is absolutely nothing wrong with a knife until you give it to a criminally inclined *****! There is nothing wrong with the Public Order Act until you leave it to the interpretation and administration of ………… !!
What have you been doing about it in the past.. you never did anything about it when you were Veep or you couldn’t even come together as opposition. ..everyone is waiting to be arrested. This man is so irrelevant !!
Who is surprised about all this. PF has become worse than MMD. After promising us heaven on earth they have become what they were busy condemning, its unfortunate, its ridiculous. Their cadres, because they are enjoying right now are blind to all this injustice. They will only notice when they are out of government like MMD.
for the sake of order and security in my view these guys are needed and the POA shud also be in place and implemented professionally by the law inforcers…its an act which shud be implemented ba Mumba….u neva saw that in MMD time????
POA must stay since opposition behave like wooly mammoth beasts as soon as the word ‘elections’ is emitted! There is no danger that the gov’t will use it against opponents. And anyway, why change it if opposition who ‘might’ win will reinstate it to control their opponents? Especially MMD as they introduced it in the first place. It’s a good tool to guard democracy in such a politically volatile country.
And the rest is just Pastor Mumba counting his chickens before they hatch. There will be no upsetting the apple cart with the 50+1 because there will be people reorganising to join opposite sides, and I reckon PF are in with a healthy chance, being the most sane party around.
Iam not an MMD member but just a Zambian observing from a political distance.
I love MMD because it introduced multy partism and democracy in Zambia. However, in my opinion, Dr Nevers Mumba (Pastor) has not been inspiring to lead the party.
He is the man of the pal pit and not the political platform. He doesn’t have the charisma to make people follow him as a politician. I believe our God is a God of second chance. Let Pastor Mumba relinquish his position as MMD president and let the people of his party go for a convention to elect a new leader.
He should start preaching the word of God as he used to do some years back. I still miss the Christian programme dubbed- ZAMBIA SHALL BE SAVED. Oh man that was powerful becoz even drunkards didn’t want to miss it. It was packed with…