By AARON CHIYANZO
WE have perpetual crybabies contesting for public office and refuse to accept outcome of elections which should not be allowed, President Edgar Lungu told international election observers yesterday.
President Lungu said the UPND had not been accepting election results and had never recognised him as Republican President since 2015 when he first took office.
The President said this when the African Union Observer Mission led by former President of Sierra Leone Ernest Bai Koroma paid a courtesy call on him at State House yesterday.
Mr Lungu said despite the courts confirming him as having legitimately won the previous elections after petitions by the UPND, its leader Mr Hakainde Hichilema had never recognised him.
“In 2015 the results were contested, court sessions everywhere but the courts said I won. The opposition leader never recognised me, never even once has he called me President. He calls me Edgar or Mr Lungu at times, that’s the most dignified title he can give me,” he said.
President Lungu said the major concern in Zambia’s election had been the failure by the UPND to accept election outcomes.
“We have perpetual crybabies contesting for public office,” he said.
President Lungu also expressed concern that respectable officers from the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ), police and other institutions were called PF cadres by the “crybabies” who were always claiming that they had been robbed.
He urged AU observers to freely engage ECZ and others stakeholders to get their stories on the elections and the judiciary on precedents for its decisions.
The President also expressed concern that some observer missions came with preconceived ideas to influence the outcome of elections as he commended the AU for always being objective.
President Lungu also met a delegation of the Commonwealth Observer Mission led by former Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete and called on them to help oversee the upcoming election.
