Sun, 15 Jan 2017 10:31:40 +0000
Hakainde Hichilema’s third term balancing act
Dear Editor,
If there was ever a time that UPND president Hakainde Hichilema needed to be all things to all opposition party leaders, that time is now, following NAREP president Elias Chipimo’s clarification that President Edgar Lungu had not served a single term from the time he was elected in 2015 and is therefore eligible to contest the 2021 general elections (“Lungu can stand says Chipimo”, Daily Nation, January 13, 2017).
But what can UPND add to a group of opposition parties whose leaders have given well-reasoned guidance on President Edgar Lungu’s eligibility to re-contest the next general elections in 2021?
Even Wynter Kabimba the Rainbow Party leader and prominent lawyer did not mince his words on the matter.
He said it did not make any sense for the UPND to think otherwise and oppose the provisions of the Constitution.
Admittedly, it is easy to see why a limit to the number of attempts at Zambia’s presidency is needed in our country’s Constitution.
All other top honchos in UPND need access to Zambia’s top job to keep the party’s wheels turning in the rapidly growing population.
Lest we forget that the UPND president has the country’s biggest known presidential election losing record helps.
And a limit of two attempts and participation in the presidential
elections would help other UPND top leaders to also attempt at Zambia’s top prize since others are unwilling to hold a national
convention prior to the 2021 polls. Nonetheless, Hichilema’s insistence on being the only eligible UPND presidential candidate could make this tricky.
It is perhaps telling that he’s taken the third term balancing act to the disillusioned UPND die-hard supporters.
His bigger plan maybe is to make it easier for the UPND to do politics on the turf of his new-found friends in LAZ and The Mast newspaper.
Mubanga Luchembe,
LUSAKA
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It’s Catch 22 for LAZ president
Dear Editor,
On the one hand I do not sympathize with the Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) president Linda Kasonde over the fact that LAZ has indicated that it has no official position on President Edgar Lungu’s remarks that the Constitution allows him to contest the 2021 general elections.
But on the other, common sense suggests that the type of reaction she was going to get from the PF supporters would be unpredictable but possibly hostile (“LAZ refuses to state position on Lungu’s eligibility” Daily Nation, January 14, 2017).
But Zambian politics has long given up being sensible and predictable.
This turn of events, cynics and critics might say, was in the wake of the UPND orchestrated third term narrative that has been championed in relation to President Edgar Lungu’s desire to contest the 2021 polls.
Undoubtedly, the silence on the matter by LAZ officials has been questioned by many who have suggested that it could appear to mean that President Edgar Lungu was eligible to contest in 2021.
This is in spite of the civil society activists having spoken respectfully about their grievances and their grouse against the LAZ officials whom they have accused of having sold out to the UPND leadership over the issue of interpretation of the 2016 Constitution.
They have said that LAZ leaders were no longer relevant to their struggles and interests and they wanted the Constitutional Court to deal with them as part of the authentic representatives of the ordinary people’s communities. Since the presidential post-election petition, last year, civil society activists have become more suspicious and more skeptical of LAZ’s credibility and integrity.
This bodes ill for the already-fractured popularity of the LAZ president and her organization in the country.
With the on-going constitutional debates, it is Catch 22 for LAZ president Linda Kasonde: on the one hand she is expected to defend the constitutional misinterpretations on the presidential term of office and her affinity to the opposition party UPND – long thought to typify her time in office when she chooses to support the UPND orchestrated third term narrative.
On the other hand, she has to play the scared and tactless legal consultant by staying mute and non-committal – knowing full well that the cost of doing so might be to the advantage of President Edgar Lungu’s electoral pulling power in the 2021 polls.
Besides, Linda Kasonde has shown self-inflicted traits of being a political blame game ignoramus.
LM
LUSAKA
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The third term canard
Dear Editor,
I did not think that people who have gone to school can today fail understand the difference between a third term and the Constitution.
President Lung is not asking for a third term but merely interpreting the law which some people want to deliberately run away from for their political expedience.
I can foresee a bunch of some Zambians swimming in their big ocean of disappointment yet again in 2021 for their sheer maladroitness.
So the ranting from HH, Charles Milupi, Sarah Longwe Clarke of NGOCC are nothing but a big political frustration which will not take them anywhere.
But of course if talking makes them pass their leisure time, then who in the name of Holy Moses should seal their restless lips
Zambians out there should know that they are dealing with negative or difficult people. People who seem chronically critical, belligerent, indignant, angry, or just plain rude.
They say people remember and learn from what you do more than what you say. If you feed into the situation with emotions, you’ll teach them they can depend on you for a reaction.
I am already seeing a huge panic in the opposition camps and its affiliates like the NGOCC because deep down their hearts, they know they are in for another wrong jump. A case of history repeating itself.
I am sure that by the tie we hit 2020, their lungs would have collapsed due to excessive and inane talk.
The opposition should know that if someone’s making life difficult for people around them, you can be sure they’re doing worse for themselves.
It is just a matter of time when ‘wina azalila’’.
To President Lungu I say keep on seeking wisdom and guidance from God and the sky will not be your limit. God has already starting your war.
Josiah Soko
Salima Road, Matero
Opposition leaders disappointing
Dear Editor,
Any politician worth the name stands with a Government of the day whenever the country faces a calamity.
This is true, when America was under attack with the 9/11, all politicians regardless of their political affiliation stood together.
Today, Zambia is under attack by the army worms. The question is, where are those big mouthed politicians?
They have decided to conveniently go mute on the matter until when the coast will be clear that is when they will start their ranting!
One wonders what kind of opposition we have in Zambia.
I thought this is the time our opposition would have come out and offer their ideas to the Government but unfortunately, some , if not all, have gone into their ‘temples’ praying to their gods to aggravate the situation. Pathetic!
Micky, Ndola
