IGNORE LUNGU’S RALLIES ORDER…a competitor can’t become player and the referee – Changala
BREBNER Changala says all aspiring candidates, participating political parties and the Zambia Police should ignore President Edgar Lungu’s ‘illegal’ implied decree that there should be no campaign rallies.
He has also wondered whether the August 12 elections are being organised by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) or by President Lungu and State House.
Changala, a good governance activist, says President Lungu “is now the don of illegalities.”
He was reacting to Lungu, the PF presidential candidate, who on Wednesday directed the police and the Ministry of Health to ensure enforcement of the COVID-19 pandemic health regulations and guidelines, insofar campaign rallies are concerned.
Changala said President Lungu was a candidate in the August general elections.
“He is competing like everybody else. President Edgar Lungu is filling in so that there is no vacuum in the nation,” Changala said in an interview. “So, he cannot abuse his office to leverage over the other candidates and become the player and the referee. It is immoral for President Edgar Lungu to be giving directives to the police to injure the interests and aspirations of other competitors. This is damaging and giving a bad name to a free and fair election. I want to go further; President Lungu has lost legitimacy and trust of the people of Zambia.”
He said parties could not go into an election without campaign rallies.
Changala has since called upon the European Union (EU), the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU), and the donor community that has pumped money for elections to closely follow and speak out on what is happening in Zambia over the forthcoming elections.
“President Edgar Lungu has been campaigning for the last one and half years, in the name of inspecting developmental projects and empowering the people of Zambia. He has been distributing bicycles. He has literally corrupted the electoral calendar!” he explained. “Now, knowing very well that his colleagues have not campaigned, that’s when he abuses his office and issues a decree in a democratic society, banning the campaign rallies. That will put bwana Edgar Lungu in problems.”
Changala added, saying: “when he was issuing that decree, you could see how hypocritical President Lungu is.”
“He was addressing cadres both inside and outside Mulungushi Conference Centre and pictures don’t lie. The challenge we are facing is that President Edgar Lungu thinks that Zambians are now a bunch of idiots. These ‘idiots’ have to use the might of the vote to kick him out and for him to understand that you don’t take the people of God for granted,” Changala said. “I’m appealing to all aspiring candidates and participating political parties to ignore the political statement from Edgar Lungu. And I’m appealing to the police command to treat the statement from President Edgar Lungu as the joke of the year, because this is an election period.”
He further invited the ECZ: “to say very clearly as to who is running these elections.”
“Is it President Edgar Lungu and State House? What is their (Lungu and State House) role in giving guidelines, let alone the electoral calendar? Is it the mandate of a competing candidate like Edgar Lungu?” he asked. “They (ECZ) must clearly walk away from this dictatorial behaviour from President Edgar Lungu. PF has to be kicked out, like yesterday. Zambians need change. We don’t need mediocrity, thuggery and cadres. We need the restoration of the rule of law. We need to get our country back and we need prosperity.”
Changala stressed that the ECZ must put its foot down, around the issue of a competitor effectively banning campaign rallies.
He underscored that the police command must ignore the instructions from: “a lame-duck President.”
Changala asked why the PF’s opponents should enter the race with their hands and legs tied, “while Edgar Lungu and his friends are free to do what they want?”
“[Joe] Malanji has been all over the show, dishing out money, holding rallies, receiving defectors. Edgar Lungu has a moral obligation to compare and understand, and not to start giving wrong instructions,” noted Changala. “In fact, the order the President gave today (Wednesday) is an illegal instruction, both at law and in moral terms. He is supposed to compete with others on equal terms. He has hijacked the State media [and] a number of private media organisations. He is now the don of illegalities!”
This article originally appeared on The Mast
Photo: The Mast