Fri, 16 Jun 2017 12:50:34 +0000
By JACKSON MAPAPAYI
THE 48 United Party for National Development (UPND) members of Parliament deserve being suspended from Parliament for boycotting the state of the nation address, ruling Patriotic Front in North-Western Province has charged.
In his ruling on Tuesday regarding the decision by opposition MPs to abscond the address (SONA) by President Edgar Lungu, Speaker of the National Assembly Dr. Patrick Matibini found the 48 UPND MPs guilty.
In an interview with the Daily Nation, PF provincial youth vice chairperson Jackson Kungo said the decision by the Speaker was commendable because the behaviour of the MPs was inexplicable and unjustifiable.
He said the MPs should stop leaving in denial but face reality and accept that President Lungu is the Head of State because they all swore their allegiance to him (President Lungu).
“If anything, what they did was tantamount to disloyalty, disobedient and also violated their oath of office because if you recall, on 23rd September, 2016, the UPND members of Parliament together with the rest of the house took their oath of office in which they swore allegiance to the President, as required by the Republican Constitution, Mr Kungo explained.
He said the MPs should stop being misled by their party leadership because they were not the ones who elected them but the people from their various constituencies.
“And the people need to be adequately represented by these MPs,” he added.
And Mr Kungo has advised the people in the province to stop electing their leaders on party lines but vote for leaders that have a heart for the people.
