Sun, 19 Mar 2017 13:26:29 +0000
By ANDREW MUKOMA AND CHINTU MALAMBO
OPPOSITION UPND in Southern province has charged that it is wrong for people to blame opposition lawmakers for shunning President Edgar Lungu’s parliamentary address on Friday morning.
And the affected MPs are ready to fight if Ms Jean Kapata dares them for a fight at Parliament on Tuesday, whether verbally or physical, according to their spokesperson Katuba MP, Patricia Mwashingwele.
Livingstone District spokesman Neto Halwabala said that UPND MPs should not be held accountable for their decision because that is the stance of the party.
“UPND MPs are not answerable to PF, but to the people of Zambia from their respective constituencies.
“As UPND we are worried with PF’s failure to understand simple constitutional matters on governance. You don’t need to be a law student to understand the privileges and constitutional right of the member of Parliament (MP),” he said.
This was contained in a press statement made available to the Daily Nation in Livingstone yesterday.
“It is the people from their respective constituencies who should demand their removal from Parliament if at all they committed any offence for boycotting Parliament yesterday when Mr Edgar Chagwa Lungu was addressing the nation.
“Nevertheless, it is within their constitutional right and privileges to boycott Parliament as one way of sending a message to those holding instruments of power (the executive) when all other available avenues are frustrated,” he said.
Ms Mwashingwele said that if Ms Kapata was going to dare the UPND MPS like that, national issues will not be resolved in a good manner because they were also ready to fight.
“When Ms Kapata dares us like that, I don’t think we will be able to resolve national issues by fighting and so if she says we are going to fight if we show up at Parliament on Tuesday, then there will be a serious fight because as UPND MPs, we are ready,” she said.
Ms Mwashingwele was reacting to Ms Kapata’s statement that there will be total war at Parliament on Tuesday If UPND MPs showed their faces because there was no way they could accept to be addressed by Vice President Inonge Wina when they did not recognise and respect President Edgar Lungu as Head of State.
