Africa-Press – Zambia. Despite still mourning late President Edgar Lungu, the main opposition Patriotic Front (PF) has set a timetable for elections in all its structures, leading up to the crucial conference to elect its new leader.
The PF has also delivered a scathing review of the state of the nation after fours years of the United Party for National Development (UPND) in power with President Hakainde Hichilema.
PF Secretary General Raphael Nakachinda has told a press briefing that a circular has already been sent for elections in all its sections to begin, with each structure instructed to beef up their strength from the current 24, to 72 members.
Following the expediting of this process in the structures countrywide, the Secretary General will attend to elections of provincial executives, in order to renew the mandates of these structures.
These activities will pave way for the conference that will elections a new Central Committee, and thr new President of the party.
He dispelled news that the conference would be held in April, saying the current Central Committee is actually set to meet in September, and the collective wisdom of the highest policy making organ will set the date for the conference shortly after that.
Nakachinda appealed to other opposition parties not to aid the UPND government in destroying the PF, by not involving themselves in its internal affairs.
“The destruction of the PF will not benefit anyone in opposition. All the opposition formation will benefit from the survival of the PF ” Nakachinda said.
Speaking earlier, leader of PF leader of the opposition in parliament, whom the Speaker of the National Assembly has refused to recognise, Miles Sampa delivered a critical review of the UPND four years in government.
He said the state of the nation, economically, was such that all key aspects of the cost of living have worsened, as President Hichilema has failed to fulfil specific benefits he promised in 2021.
He said fuel prices are currently still double what they were when the PF left power, and now the country is experiencing a shortage of diesel despite the hype that Open Access System on utilisation of Tazama pipeline would bring both stability of supply and competitive and lower pricing of the commodity.
Sampa also reminded the nation that the promise by Hichilema to bring mealie meal prices down to K50 per 25 kilogramme bag have not materialised, despite government intervention in the market through Zambia National Service (ZNS).
“Even the fact of bumper harvest of maize has failed to bring down the prices of the staple because the government was more interested in exporting maize and mealie meal to neighbouring countries,” Sampa said.
Load shedding was another flaring failure of the UPND four years. Even under drought conditions, the PF government was able to ensure load shedding did not go beyond eight hours daily. But under the UPND, load shedding schedules now are giving residential customers only five hours of electricity daily.
“In fact I came across a saying in one district in Eastern Province that the one hour of actual electricity supply they are getting, after midnight daily is called view once, because it just flashes once and is gone.”
Sampa also highlighted rampant abuse of state institutions by the UPND government, citing parliament, the judiciary and the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ), and others.
He noted the issue of interference by the government, through parliament, in the choice of leader of the opposition by the PF, which has been ignored.
The PF never interfered with UPND choice of its leaders while in opposition in parliament. Even the cases involving PF, which are in courts, and need only a ruling, are stuck. The ECZ is also preventing the PF from participating in by-elections, thus denying citizens their right to choose representatives.
He said political parties in Zambia are recognised as constitutional institutions, therefore, cooperating partners must take keen interest in the breaches of hindering the free participation of the PF in the democratic process by ECZ Chairperson Mwangala Zaloumis.
Before ending his address, Sampa joked that events of the past week had proved that even public complaints on this issue are indeed “the voice of the people, being the voice of God”.
He said there must be some explanation for what has happened to one Zaloumis.
John 8:32 “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
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