United Party for National Development (UPND) National Chairperson, Mutale Nalumango has said that President Edgar Lungu shouldn’t think that he has the right to kill president Hakainde Hichilema and those that he deems to be political threats, at will.
In an apparent response to President Lungu’s recent statement that he would have eliminated Mr. Hichilema at will if he had wanted, Ms. Nalumango stated that being at the helm of the country’s leadership didn’t give him a leeway to kill those that he wished dead.
The former Deputy Speaker of National Assembly also wondered why President Lungu has been insisting that Mr. Hichilema will not appear on the 2021 presidential ballot, adding that such reckless statements must not come from political leaders holding the highest office in the land.
“We hear President Lungu himself says that if he had wanted, he would have killed president Hakainde Hichilema a long time. Has he got the right to kill? To say, ‘if I wanted?’ Is it about you wanting…to kill a person? Is it about you having authority to kill?” wondered Ms. Nalumango.
Ms. Nalumango stated that such irresponsible statements weren’t expected to come from those who hold sensitive positions of leadership in the country, especially the Head of State.
“Such statements should never come from leaders of the nation. People are listening; you don’t say that! This is the tragedy of our nation, that the very top leadership of our country can declare such things. One death is one too many. We have lost Lawrence Banda; we have lost Mapenzi Chibulo, Frank Mugala, and many more. It’s not about what you want as ECL. It is God’s will and your time is up,” she charged.
And Chirundu Member of Parliament, Douglas Syakalima said that President Lungu must take a leaf from the most brutal of dictators in Africa whose tenure came to an abrupt end when the people chose to elect new leaders.
He wondered where the PF got the impetus to wish people dead at will, stating that the PF must start negotiating and making friemds as they prepared for their way out of power soon.
“Who tells them that they have powers to just tell anyone that, ‘today, you are dying’? Who tells them that? We had worse dictators in this world. Where are they today? Dictators move out badly! Start making friends; start negotiating for you are on your way out. You will hear that people’s power is real. You can bring your military, you can bring your police when people have decided, they have decided. You will go!” he said.
Meanwhile, Ms. Nalumango said that the UPND would not be congratulating the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) for its victory in the 9 of the 14 by elections that were held across the country yesterday because they were not conducted in a free and fair manner.
Asked to comment on the elections results margins between the PF and the UPND in the just-ended local and Parliamentary by-elections, Ms. Nalumango stated that people shouldn’t expect her to congratulate the ruling party because the political playing field was not leveled enough to allow the opposition to campaign freely.
“We are in a situation where the ground [political] is marred with a lot of irregularities. Don’t ask me, media guys to congratulate PF. I could have done so ’cause they have won many…in blackets. But did they really win…when many of our people are in incarceration on trumped up charges and you expect me to be here and say, ‘well done to PF’? No! We could have congratulated them if they won properly,” she said.
Nalumango has since congratulated the UPND members who campaigned in the 14 by-elections, stating that they tried their best to convince electorates that the party was the solution to the economic malaise that the country was grappling with.
“Allow me to congratulate our gallant men and women that went into the campaigns for the elections that were held yesterday. They worked very hard to try and convince our people that the way out of our economic malaise is UPND,” she said.
UPND National Trustee, Andrew Banda reiterated that the political gains that the UPND made in 2016 when she and the PF shared 98 percent of the political spoils between them after UPND’s Hakainde Hichilema got 1, 760, 347 votes against the PF’s Edgar Lungu who got 1, 860, 877 was a sign that the party had acquired a national character.
And President Hichilema’s political advisor, Douglas Siakalima observed that the party had made tremendous political gains in the Northern circuit considering that in 2011 the party got 2,000 from the entire Muchinga and Northen Provinces combined, but today the 2, 600 against the PF’s 13, 000 votes in the just one constituency (Lukashya) was the testimony of continued growth and strength of the party.
