DEMOCRATIC Party president Harry Kalaba says it is merely drama that President Edgar Lungu went to verify his Grade 12 certificate.
Kalaba also asserts that the DP enjoys a fair market share of voters in Southern Province.
On Tuesday, President Lungu went to Andrew Mwenya polling station in Chawama Constituency, Lusaka, to have his voting details verified.
After that, the President went to the Examinations Council of Zambia (ECZ) service centre in Woodlands, Lusaka where he had his Grade 12 certificate verified.
But Kalaba wondered why someone who is ineligible to contest the Republican presidency, for a third time, can be rushing to do something reserved for those who are eligible.
“I don’t know what the President was doing that thing for (verification of his Grade 12 certificate). He is not eligible! He will not stand in the elections which we’ll be having in August this year. He doesn’t qualify!” Kalaba said in an interview in Chikankata on Wednesday. “Even if he was verifying his Grade 12 certificate, it was just for drama, to show that he can waste time in that fashion.”
The opposition leader is shocked that when most Zambians complained about mischiefs like the government’s procurement of expired drugs, President Lungu opted for silence.
“We have also been talking about corruption in his government and all these other things and he says nothing. But when it comes to something that he is not supposed to be part of – the verification of Grade 12 results – he goes,” Kalaba said. “What is he verifying his Grade 12 certificate for, because he is not eligible? He can’t go for a third term. Can’t he get that in his ears?”
He further spoke about the poorly publicised voter verification process, that started on March 29 and closes today.
He explained that out of 12,000 polling stations, there were only 3,000 where people could have their details corrected.
“The other 9,000 polling stations don’t have machinery. The ECZ (Electoral Commission of Zambia) doesn’t have money. Actually, they are short of about K400 million, and yet President Lungu bought a jet…” Kalaba complained. “The President has not taken the electoral system seriously and he hopes to win with a system which he has undermined so heavily. All he does is making reckless statements which jeopardise the electoral process, like ‘the ECZ is concentrating the issuance of voters’ cards in opposition strongholds.’ We are at our lowest!”
Meanwhile, speaking to DP supporters in Chikankata district, Southern Province, Kalaba reiterated his grievance about the 31-kilometre potholed and dusty stretch, that branches off from the Kafue – Mazabuka highway, to go to Chikankata Salvation Army Mission.
The Chikankata Salvation Army Mission runs a hospital, boarding secondary school, radio station and two colleges – one for nursing and the other one for biomedical sciences.
“When I came here last year, I talked about this Chikankata road and I have found it even worse this year. It’s 31 kilometres from the Kafue – Mazabuka road but it takes you two hours to reach here,” Kalaba said. “How can you not have a proper road coming here when there are even two strategic institutions here? You have Chikankata College of Nursing and Chikankata College of Biomedical Sciences. But just constructing a proper 31 kilometres of a tarred road; that should honestly be impossibility? Those are jokes! And can you imagine Chikankata district without the Salvation Army; there will be nothing here!”
He told supporters that the DP was waging a new form of struggle to redeem all Zambians from government-made poverty.
Kalaba further indicated that he did not buy public perception that nearly all southerners belonged to the UPND.
“We’ll have our own share of votes as DP in Southern Province and we respect the market share of the UPND here. But we’ll also have our market share here,” said Kalaba. “And there is nothing that can take me back to the PF. Not money! If the Zambian people don’t want to give me an opportunity, at least I have presented myself. But if they say they want others, that is their own fault. And they will be committing a mistake of great proportion.”