MCDONALD Chipenzi has charged that President Edgar Lungu’s time in State House is up in a matter of months.
Chipenzi says President Lungu’s end of his rule was nearing the end as the 2021 Presidential and General Elections are fast approaching and panic has gripped him so tightly without any breathing space.
“Unless he has a lot to fear due to his misrule or misgovernance, his stay at State House is now a matter of time and not tenable beyond 2021,” he said.
He says the President’s unmasked appetite for a third term of office is out of hand.
Chipenzi is the executive director for the Governance, Elections, Advocacy, Research Services (GEARS) Initiative Zambia.
He was reacting to President Lungu’s allusion, on Chinsali’s Delight Kwitonta radio last Thursday, that if one wanted to succeed him, they could only do so in 2026 or 2031 when he would leave power.
Chipenzi said such presidential utterances, if correctly quoted, were sign of big-headedness.
He said such a statement made very sad reading, scary and an act of disregard for electoral democratic practice entrenched in Zambia for years.
“If being President has really impressed him, he has an option of remaining one as PF president at the party convention, if at all it will be held,” he said, in a statement. “Regardless of the sweet he is enjoying in the presidential seat, to make him so excited to an extent of uttering anything and everything that undermines democracy, rule of law and constitutionalism in Zambia, he must realise that respect for the Constitution and the fabric of the practice of electoral democracy, is what will earn him respect after his time as President ends – not those who are misleading him to stay on.”
He said President Lungu did not own the people (voters) and that being a President that assumed office after others had, “he is luck because he has references to point at, like Kenneth Kaunda and Rupiah Banda”.
Chipenzi cautioned President Lungu against being in the forefront undermining the democratic processes in the country.
He added that he must not use the law enforcement agencies as tools of oppression and suppression of democratic growth in Zambia.
“Law enforcement agencies must also not be used by an individual to undermine democracy and the exercise of citizens’ rights and freedoms as enshrined in the Constitution in Zambia,” he noted. “They are the last line of defence for democracy, constitutionalism and rule of law in any country as leaders come and go but these institutions remain.”
Chipenzi insisted that President Lungu’s fear to lose the presidency at the party’s general conference is a sole act which had potential to dash his obsession and hope for the third term.
“President Lungu must, therefore, not breed self-anger and dictatorial tendencies in him to an extent of threatening democratic practices in Zambia,” he said. “He must realise that his time as President is up, no matter the threats against those telling him this hard truth both from inside his party and outside.”
Chipenzi said President Lungu’s end of his rule was nearing the end, as 2021 general election was fast approaching and panic grips him so tightly without any breathing space.
“Unless he has a lot to fear due to his misrule or misgovernance, his stay at State House is now a matter of time and not tenable beyond 2021,” Chipenzi said. “It must dawn in his mind that he has served his part of the years destined for him to be President of Zambia. Now, it is time for another person to take up the mantle of leadership while he rests.”
He stressed that President Lungu’s “insatiable appetite” for a third term must not plunge Zambia into unnecessary tension, debates, threats and suppression of citizens’ rights and freedoms to assembly, association and expression which includes freedoms to demonstrations and protests.
“Above all, let him leave a good democratic legacy of respect for democratic practice and constitutionalism,” said Chipenzi.