Mon, 12 Feb 2018 08:21:55 +0000
By BENNIE MUNDANDO
OPERATION Young Vote (OYV) executive director Guess Nyirenda must not stoop so low as to be used as a pawn by the UPND to block a move by some Zambians who want a limit on how many times an individual can stand in elections, Lusaka Province PF youth chairperson Kennedy Kamba has said.
Mr. Kamba said it was clear that Mr. Nyirenda had sold his organisation to UPND to make himself relevant. But he advised him that he could not step on other people’s democratic rights simply because he wanted a morsel of bread on his table. Mr. Kamba said those pushing for a limit to how many times a presidential candidate could stand were within their constitutional right and must not be demonised or aligned to the PF.
“It is Mr. Nyirenda who is being used by the opposition UPND. Those who are pushing for the limit have no agenda against UPND but want sanity in the way we do politics,
“There is no way someone can be standing for over five consecutive times without allowing other people in the party to take over. If electorates have rejected you, why should you continue forcing yourself of them?
Mr. Kamba, in an interview with the Daily Nation, said the limitation should not be seen as a law to punish Mr. Hichilema alone but for all other presidential candidates.
“This is a national issue which must not be politicised because those advancing it have reasons and have the right to do so and Mr. Nyirenda has no power to block anyone from doing so. Let him not be used as a pawn by the UPND,” Mr. Kamba said.
But Mr. Nyirenda argued that calls for limitation were not only misplaced and naïve, but also ill-conceived and retrogressive to the dictates, values, norms and principles of democracy.
