UPND reflects on challenges of 2013

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UPND Secretary General Winstone Chibwe
UPND Secretary General Winstone Chibwe

The United Party for National Development (UPND) has described 2013 as a year where political players faced most challenges.

 

UPND Secretary General Winstone Chibwe says unnecessary parliamentary by elections and petitions constrained the party of its coffers.

 

Mr Chibwe further lamented that the public order Act was allegedly applied selectively by the government of the day.

 

He was speaking in an interview with ZANIS in Lusaka today.

 

He is however optimistic that his party would continue defending its strongholds including new other areas and closing-in on the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) by grabbing seats that do not belong to it.

 

On the constitution making process, Mr Chibwe appealed to the PF government to give the Zambian people the document this year that will stand the test of time as opposed to what he termed ‘changing goal posts’.

 

“I hope something conclusive is coming up next year in 2014 because the party and many Zambians are anxiously waiting for the new constitution to come out,” he said.

 

But Minister of Justice Wynter Kabimba clarified that President Sata’s statement meant that the constitution only needs to be amended and that other people misunderstood to mean he does not want a new constitution.

 

Mr Kabimba said in parliament on Tuesday that if the President did not want the constitution-making process to go ahead, he would have dissolved the Technical Committee on Drafting the Constitution while the constitution-making process was still ongoing.

 

The Head of State would have dissolved the Technical Committee. He has those powers but its mandate is still ongoing,” he said.

 

Mr Kabimba was responding to a point of order by Mazabuka UPND Member of Parliament Garry Nkombo who wanted to establish whether the PF government had deviated from its campaign promise on the constitution making process.

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