It is morally wrong for the UPND government to brag that they have allowed two opposition rallies in three years, says Lusaka Lawyer

ZAMBIA’S DEMOCRATIC SPACE KEEPS SHRINKING

…..it is morally wrong for the UPND government to brag that they have allowed two opposition rallies in three years, says Lusaka Lawyer

Lusaka… Thursday, September 5, 2024 (SMART EAGLES)

Lusaka Lawyer and Patriotic Front member Celestine Mambula Mukandila says democratic space keeps on shrinking in the country under the UPND government.

Mr Mukandila says it is morally wrong for the UPND to brag that they have allowed the opposition political parties to hold rallies twice in three years.

Speaking when he featured on Joy FM in Lusaka, Mr Mukandila maintained that the police have no right to stop any political party from holding a rally as doing so is an infringement of their freedom of assembly.

He explained that the organizers of a rally ought to notify the police who in turn should police the event.

“Well I will tell you that the democratic space in the country has not been very impressive and that is the truth. You cannot brag about allowing political parties (opposition) to hold only two rallies in three years of governance. And remember you only have five years to run the country, so you cannot decide to brag about that. It is a serious downturn on our democratic space and that is why we have been indicating that our democratic space keeps on shrinking,” he said.

“And it is not right to stop political parties from holding rallies, or mobilizing their parties on the pretext of not having enough manpower to police the event. I feel in this democratic space we need to have the right to enjoy the freedom of assembly. Right now as we are talking for example, youths that were protesting as lone protestors at the Freedom Statue in Lusaka, the likes of Jason Mwanza, they are still in police custody. And it has been eight days down the line, the police refused to grant them police bond. This in itself is an abrogation of human rights, the rights that we were born with.”

He wondered why the police have refused to grant the young protestors police bond and have unlawfully kept them in cells.

“You shall only be taken before court within 24 hours or perhaps in an event where there is an allowance it’s 48hrs, now we have got youths being unlawfully detained for over eight days. This is not right! We should not give this government any support in an event where they come out to say that they have allowed two rallies in three years,” he added.

“Right now as we are talking, we had another scenario where the leader of PeP Sean Tembo decided to go to Petauke to request for them to hold a rally. I am well informed that the police even refused to acknowledge receipt of their letter of notification that they shall be having a rally.”

Mr Mukandila reminded the UPND government that Zambia is a multiparty democracy and should not infringe the rights of the opposition.

“The problem is that this government, and we should be referring much to the letter written by the United Nations Special Rapporteurs on human rights, this goverment has decided to curb on the rights of the opposition political parties to assemble and all this is against the democratic tenancy that we have,” he stated.

“Remember Zambia is a multiparty democracy, and where we are directing our minds to is that only one perception will come out that this government intends to ensure that there is only one active political party in the country. We want to see Zambia be a multiparty democracy and if that can be done, all of us will be happy that our rights are being protected and respected.”

He emphasized that the police should not be abused by the party that is in power.

“Right now, what we see is a serious abuse of the police by the executive arm of government to an extent of stopping political rallies. Remember the police does not even have the right to stop a political rally, the power they have is to protect the people having such processions. We have got cases of where the courts guided that you don’t need a police permit to hold a rally like the case of Christine Mulundika and the case of Resident Doctors, the law is very clear,” he concluded.

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