UPND National Youth Chairperson Gilbert Liswaniso says the ruling party could support the removal of Zambia’s presidential term limit, but insists that any decision on President Hakainde Hichilema’s continued stay in office would ultimately depend on voters.
Liswaniso said the removal of a presidential term limit would not automatically guarantee Hichilema another term, arguing that Zambians could eventually demand a different leader even if the law were changed.
Speaking on Crown TV’s Spotlight programme on Monday, Liswaniso said the debate over presidential term limits had largely been driven by the opposition, which he claimed was concerned about the UPND’s numerical strength in Parliament.
Mr. Liswaniso thinks that all leaders have integrity. The fact is power corrupts. Slowly but surely. Even Mr. Hichilema is not immune to this. They all start well then morph into unrecognisable monsters. The longer they stay in power, the more they destroy the guardrails of democracy and the more difficult it becomes to get rid of them peacefully. Yes voting will take place but it will be all a show.
The lock down of the courts to prevent Mr. Mundubile from lodging his presidential election petition was, for me, a warning of what is to come if we go to sleep. There was a very good reason for the introduction of the term limit in our constitution – to avoid any one individual consolidating power around himself. The elections Mr. Liswaniso is talking about can be rigged and voters rendered powerless to remove a dictator. It has happened in Uganda and closer to home, Zimbabwe. The two term limit ensures that no such thing can happen.
This talk about term extention is no idle talk. “Mumbwe pakulila ninshi kuli uko ashintilishe amatako”. Under normal circumstances, we should not even be talking about term extention barely a month after the elections. The fact that this has come up means there is danger on the horizon.
As Zambians, we must resist this obnoxious idea with every ounce of our strength.