PARLIMENTARY Chief Whip Vernon Mwaanga has said former MMD chairman for elections Mike Mulongoti should be the last person to talk about morality.

And MMD national chairman Michael Mabenga has threatened to sue Mr Mulongoti for defamation of character.

Mr Mwaanga said his comment on Mr Mulongoti’s suspension had nothing to do with morality but a political decision taken by the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC).

Mr Mwaanga was reacting to Mr Mulongoti’s statement that he is always associated with illegality.

“I was not even there when the decision to fire Mr Mulongoti was made. I was in Uganda monitoring elections. I played no role in firing him but I supported this decision then as I do now,” he said.

Mr Mwaanga said Mr Mulongoti should stick to the debate on this issue and be civilised instead of hiding in the issue of morality.

“I am disappointed that Mr Mulongoti made it sound like I have something personal against him. If I want to be personal, I would have a lot more to say about the ministries where both he and I have worked,” he said.

And Mr Mabenga said he would not take the allegations levelled against him by Mr Mulongoti lightly.

“Mulongoti is living in a glass house and, therefore, he must not throw stones because a lot of wind will go into his house,” he said.

“I want him to tell the court what he knows about what he is saying. For his own information, a lot of people have paid me for talking about things they do not understand.

“He is destroying my name. He should ask Transparency International Zambia and the National Mirror who ended up paying me a lot of money for defaming me”.

“Maybe he (Mr Mulongoti) has amassed a lot of wealth and he wants to share it with me. He is welcome to join the queue,” he said.

[Zambia Daily Mail]

Former Finance and National Planning Minister, N’gandu Magande has been appointed as Interim President of the newly launched National Movement for Progress Party (NMPP).

Mr Magande, who is also former Chilanga member of Parliament, was MMD National Executive Committee (NEC) Chairman for Finance, up until his expulsion from the from the ruling party.

The NMPP’s new Secretary General, Logan Shemena, has since announced the official launch of the party adding that it was registered on 2nd March 2011.

The NMPP is the latest of the newly formed parties, among them the national restoration Party (NAREP), ahead of this year’s general elections

Meanwhile, Political Parties in Zambia have been urged to be seriously pro-active in the anti-corruption crusade.

Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Board Chairperson, Andrew Ntewewe says the country needs selfless political leadership in fighting corruption.

Mr. Ntewewe further says the youth movement will not sit idle on such matters because doing so will plunge the nation further into socio-economic instability.

MUVITV

Chief government spokesperson Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha says government will direct the ministry of local government and housing to investigate and arrest individuals behind the installation of bill boards in Lusaka alerting the public that the world is coming to an end on 21st May, 2011.

General Shikapwasha says government will not condone people who want to cause chaos in the country.

He wonders how the bill boards were put up when they were not authorized by the local council.

And General Shikapwasha has appealed to the general public not to be bothered by the bill boards by Family Radio with a message reading in part, “we are almost there”.

Bill boards have been placed at Manda Hill and along Makishi road, warning the public that the world is coming to an end on 21st May, 2011.

And Former Roman Catholic Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo has cautioned citizens to be wary of false prophets as prophesied in the Bible.

Archbishop Milingo has urged the public to remain faithful and stay cautious of many more false prophesies to come.

[QFM]

The United Liberal Party (ULP) has said there is nothing wrong with election monitors conducting the Parallel Voter Tabulation (PVT) in this year’s elections.

ULP president Sakwiba Sikota said the PVT system will ensure transparency in the electoral system as all stakeholders will have an opportunity to tally and compare provisional results with those of the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ).

Mr. Sikota said results made available through PVT are unofficial as the ECZ is the only body mandated to announce official results.

He said  all that is needed is to ensure that organizations involved in handling the PVT are accurate enough so as not to create panic in the country.

And Kabwata Constituency Member of Parliament Given Lubinda has vowed to continue advocating for Parallel Voter Tabulation adding that the exercise has always been conducted during elections.

Mr. Lubinda wonders why the PVT has become an issue now and when the ruling MMD have been relying on the same exercise to announce their victory in the previous elections even before the ECZ declared final results.

The Parliamentarian has also charged that it is highly irresponsible for Chief Government Spokesperson Ronnie Shikapwasha to threaten Zambians with arrests over a good cause.

He has since dared Lieutenant General Shikapwasha to order for his arrest adding that he will not relent in supporting the Civil Society Organizations that advocate for the PVT.

Meanwhile, the Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP) Executive Director McDonald Chipenzi has called on people issuing negative comments about the PVT to seek clarification from the organization than make uninformed comments.

[ QFM ]

The Government has said it will use diplomatic channels to complain against United States Ambassador to Zambia Mark Storella if he continues pushing for the parallel vote tabulation (PVT) system, which the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) and the Government have rejected.

Foreign Affairs Minister Kabinga Pande said the Government would not allow activities that were likely to lead to chaos in Zambia just to serve the interests of a few individuals and organisations.

Mr Pande said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that the ECZ was a qualified institution that should be allowed to conduct the elections without hindrance.

He said it was not right to offer an important task such as PVT to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) when the country already had the ECZ, which was a competent statutory body.[pullquote]Mr Chifire said the NGOs were known to consistently work against the Government, undermine its mandate and scandalise it without cause, and that they were always on hand to support the opposition, and Patriotic Front leader Michael Sata in particular.[/pullquote]

“As the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we have a way in which we raise certain concerns and we will do so if he continues to agitate for that (PVT). We can’t allow things which will be a recipe for controversy.

“We need to rely on qualified institutions such as the ECZ. People who are not qualified are highly vulnerable to human error which can land the county in problems,” he said.

Mr Storella told journalists on Tuesday that the US government would support NGOs advocating for the PVT, arguing that it was the right thing in a democratic dispensation and that it was not the first time it was being done in Zambia.

Mr Storella could, however, not state whether the support would be in financial or material form.

Chief Government spokesperson Ronnie Shikapwasha said Mr Storella had been accredited to work in Zambia and should do so in accordance with the laws of the land as well as the Geneva Convention.

Lieutenant-General Shikapwasha said the ECZ, which is mandated to conduct polls in Zambia, had clearly stated that it did not support parallel vote tabulation.

Gen Shikapwasha, who is Information and Broadcasting Services minister, further said the Zambian laws did not support PVT activities.

He said if some stakeholders had certain concerns over the electoral process in Zambia, they were free to seek dialogue with the Government.

And the Committee of Citizens has said it is shocked with a statement by Southern African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (SACCORD) that it will defy the directive by the ECZ and go ahead to conduct the PVT.

Committee of Citizens executive director Gregory Chifire said SACCORD’s assertions that PVT was legal were not true and the argument that it was conducted by the Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP) in 2008 was unfounded.

“It needs no emphasis that the conduct of national elections or referenda is exclusively a preserve of the ECZ as enshrined in Article 76 of the Laws of Zambia and other subsidiary legislation.

“The announcement by SACCORD to defy the law will breed anarchy in the country. This announcement gives us a window of the malicious intentions of the PVT by this sinister consortium of NGOs,” he said.

Mr Chifire said the ECZ had continued to carry out initiatives that made Zambia’s national elections transparent, free and fair.

He said ECZ initiatives included the invitation of all stakeholders to witness the printing of ballot papers, provision of transparent ballot boxes, inclusion of monitors from all stakeholders, invitation of foreign observers, tallying of votes and announcing of results at polling centres, among others.

“The NGOs’ justification that the PVT brings integrity to the electoral process is not true because of their known malicious intention in using this electoral tool,” he said.

He said the American-based National Democratic Institute (NDI) would spend £3.8 million (US$5 million) to sponsor the Press Freedom Committee of The Post, Caritas Zambia, Anti-Voter Apathy Project and SACCORD to establish the PVT during elections.

Mr Chifire said the NGOs were known to consistently work against the Government, undermine its mandate and scandalise it without cause, and that they were always on hand to support the opposition, and Patriotic Front leader Michael Sata in particular.

“It is for this reason that we are opposing the use of the PVT in the forthcoming elections as it would be used to destabilise the country,” he said.

And former PF secretary general Edward Mumbi urged Zambians to insist that only the ECZ was the legal institution charged with handling the elections.

“Zambians should not agree to succumb to foreign influence which can cause chaos in the country,” Mr Mumbi said.

Meanwhile, the MMD in Ndola has appealed to some diplomats and civil society organisations to consult the Government and other stakeholders on why they are opposed to the introduction of a parallel vote count system in Zambia.

MMD Ndola District chairperson Victor Konie said in a statement released yesterday that those championing the introduction of the parallel vote count system should explain what was wrong with the system where the ECZ was the only authorised body to issue election results.

[Times of Zambia]

Parliament has heard that Zambia as at December 31st 2010 had a debt stock amounting to 1.28 billion dollars.

Finance and national planning minister Situmbeko Musokotwane disclosed this in response to a question raised by roan Member of Parliament, Chishimba Kambwili.

Dr. Musokotwane explained to the house that multi-lateral agencies were the main sources of the loans acquired.

He named the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund –IMF- as the major multilateral financiers accounting for 65.5 percent of the debt while the Paris club consortium of members accounted for 75 percent.

The minister named some of the Paris club members as Brazil, Russia,and Japan while other financing nations are Bulgaria, China, Iraq,and Kuwait.

[ MUVI ]

Mr Sata says the PF/UPND pact is still intact because he has not received any formal letter from the UPND notifying his party of their pull out from the pact.

Mr. Sata says the pact is in the interest of the citizens and not individuals.

He told QFM radio that the pact is still in its infancy and is yet to deliver to the expectations of the citizens.

The opposition leader says what is happening in the pact is normal adding that a marriage without quarrels is not a marriage at all.

Mr. Sata has since assured pact follower not to worry as the pact is yet to prove its existence.

He says the only people who can be rejoicing that the pact is dying are those in the MMD as they want to continue plundering national resources.

Meanwhile Mr Sata has congratulated the United Party for National Development (UPND) for deciding to field members of parliament in all the 150 constituencies in the forthcoming general elections.

PF leader Michael Sata says the UPND is a registered and independent party obliged to work on its programs.

Mr. Sata says the UPND does not need to get permission from anyone for them to work on their independent party agenda.
[ QFM ]