PF Colluding With Police To Prevent Opposition Parties From Assembling

UPND Chairperson for Industrial Development Bernard Mpundu has accused the Patriotic Front of colluding with the Zambia Police Service to prevent opposition parties from assembling and holding political meetings. 

Speaking in an interview, Mr Mpundu dismissed claims by Vice President Inonge Wina that the police and the PF were not preventing opposition parties from organising public meetings, provided they conformed with the Public Order Act.

“It is laughable and regrettable that the Vice President could say what she said in Parliament. Who doesn’t know the behaviour of PF? As opposition political parties, on numerous occasions, we have tried to notify the Police to hold rallies, demonstrations, and other political meetings but the police in collusion with the PF have stopped us,” Mpundu said. 

He accused Vice President Wina of knowing all too well the restrictions placed by the government on opposition parties.

“They are tyrants, they are dictators, they don’t understand what it means to be democratic. The democratic space in this country is completely buried. But that’s what you expect when you have a bunch of liars in Government,” said Mpundu.

The UPND chair’s comments come after police failed to give permission to several opposition groups wishing to protest the ECZ last week.

Youth groups from the NDC and UPND parties wrote to police two weeks ago asking to demonstrate at Lusaka’s Freedom Statue but were denied permission on the basis that there were not enough officers available to protect the event.

Meanwhile a spokesperson for the Human Rights Commission, Mwelwa Muleya, has criticised the government’s continued support for the Public Order Act, calling it an “archaic” piece of legislation used to suppress freedom of assembly and freedom of expression. 

“It is also an undeniable fact that freedoms of assembly and association are paramount in a democracy. These rights are critical as we go towards the 2021 general elections.” Muleya said.