Contact: Secretary General Batuke Imenda 0977821364/0976503165
Email: info@upndhq.org
LUNGU BANS HH CAMPAIGNS INDEFINITELY – IMENDA
Tuesday 27th July 2021
LUSAKA – We wish to express our disappointment with government institutions which are being used by President Edgar Lungu to block United Party for National Development (UPND) Alliance presidential candidate, Hakainde Hichilema, from campaigning for the August 12 general elections.
What these institutions are doing is an affront to the country’s democracy given that this is campaign period.
Mr Hichilema has consistently been stopped from campaigning on the ground by Patriotic Front (PF) government machinery such as the Zambia Air Force (ZAF), the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) and the Zambia Police on claims of flouting the electoral code of conduct.
It is disturbing that a day after Mr. Hichilema had flown to Solwezi where thousands of residents turned up to welcome him and listen to his message of hope, government decided to revoke his permit to fly to various destinations.
Mr. Hichilema was blocked from going to Rufunsa yesterday to distribute sanitisers and face masks while the police allowed Kambwili to campaign in Ndola and Luanshya.
“We are aware that the President Lungu and his runningmate will be campaigning in Kabwe and Kapiri Mposhi today. We will see what the Inspector General of Police will do going by the threats he was making yesterday. What kind of justice is this? We have always maintained that rigging is a process and the process has started,” Mr. Imenda said.
The PF government is clearly aware that the UPND Alliance is the only hope for the long-suffering Zambians, hence their insistence to block any efforts by President Hichilema from freely campaigning as enshrined in the Zambian Constitution, Mr. Imenda stated.
The actions by the PF through ZAF, ECZ and Zambia Police to stop Mr. Hichilema from campaigning could be likened to George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ where the ruling party has more rights than the opposition and the rest of the Zambians.
The action goes to show that the PF is afraid of losing the forthcoming elections and hence interfering in the operations of government institutions in a last-ditch effort to have an upper hand.
“As the UPND Alliance, we have since written to ZAF Commander Lieutenant-General, David Muma, Police Inspector-General Kakoma Kanganja, the ECZ and the European Union Elections Observer Mission in Zambia highlighting the unfair practices by the PF in the run-up to the elections.
“Blocking Mr. Hichilema from campaigning to would be voters by state machinery is a clear violation of the electoral code of conduct. We will not relent in bringing economic emancipation to the Zambian people who have suffered untold misery from the PF regime,” Mr. Imenda said.
The UPND Secretary General also called on the international community to take note of these developments and effect necessary steps.