By NATION REPORTER
HARRY Kalaba, the Citizens First (CF) president has written to the United States of America (USA) government, the Chinese government, the European Union (EU), the African Union) (AU) and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) accusing the UPND government and President Hakainde Hichilema of a range governance issues.
These include the shrinking democratic space, the declaration that the Constitution should be amended before the general election next year, voter registration as well as declaration of assets, political polarisation and unwarranted attacks among others.
Dr Kalaba in his letters to the USA embassy in Zambia, China, the EU, AU and SADC has appealed to ambassadors and High Commissioners to intervene in the government’s plans to forcibly amend the Constitution and allow democracy, which he says is under threat to prevail and not stifled.
Dr Kalaba said his party was gravely concerned with the breakdown of the rule of law and what he termed President Hichilema’s machinations intended to manipulate certain provisions of the Constitution and compromise the country’s democracy.
“It is apparent that in a bid to save his dwindling popularity and seeking to extend his hold on the presidency against the will of the people, President Hichilema has embarked on a number of illegal activities while at the same time intimidating citizens and threatening to arrest dissenting voices that are pressing for Government to uphold democratic tenets,” Dr Kalaba said.
“The path that Mr Hichilema and his UPND government are taking is not just clandestine but equally risk plunging the nation into internal strife as the people will not stand by and watch him decimate the Constitution and abrogate human rights,” he said.
He said the international community was aware that power belonged to the people, and the people were the deciding factor in governance systems.
The UPND would like to sneak in a constitution without any broad-based consultations in the remaining 14 months of this life of Parliament. This is not just unattainable but self-serving and intended to extend President Hichilema’s hold on power and he should not be allowed on this path.
Being the supreme law of the land, the writing of the Constitution cannot be rushed and 14 months is definitely not enough time to deliver a people-based constitution that will reflect the aspirations of the people of Zambia,” Dr Kalaba said.
He said the constitution should not be amended within the renaming 14 months of the UPND government’s tenure and requested that the international community should therefore prevail over Mr. Hichilema to maintain the Constitution, stating that it would not have been used to usher in the UPND government in 2021 had it been defective.
He explained that the attack by Dr Choolwe Beyani, the Civil Service Commission (CSC) chairperson on the Zambia Statistics agency (ZamStat) was worrying but served as a red-flag of their ill intentions.
Dr Kalaba said his party had repeatedly raised concerns over the appointments at the Electoral Commission of Zambia, the Drug Enforcement Commission, Anti-Corruption Commission, Public Service Commission, Judicial Complaints Commission, parastatals and many other key institutions.
According to him, the appointments were pointing to a highly polarised system that did not in any way display merit but rather based on party affiliation.
