UPND WERE MORE CLEVER THAN PF
Brave Heart News | November 5, 2026
Social political commentator Laura Miti has accused the UPND of being more politically calculating than the PF, arguing that the passage of Bill 7 last year could technically be laying the ground for a future attempt to extend President Hakainde Hichilema’s stay in power.
In a hard-hitting commentary, Ms Miti claimed that the UPND had learnt from the PF’s failed attempt to push Bill 10 just before the 2021 general elections, choosing instead to package controversial constitutional changes around the popular demand for greater representation of women, youths and persons with disabilities.
“On that count, they were way cleverer than the PF,” she wrote.
She argued that the proportional representation arrangement was the real concern, claiming that MPs linked to the presidential vote could become politically dependent on the ruling party.
She described the inclusion agenda as a “sellable shinga-butter story”, suggesting that it helped mask what she considers the wider political intentions behind the changes.
“We are, exactly, where they wanted us to be,” she wrote, saying that Bill 7 had passed and Parliament was now increasingly vulnerable to political patronage.
Her biggest concern is that the country could be heading towards a constitutional battle over a possible third term for Mr Hichilema.
“The nation is now being given the starter course of the third term issue, before we are, almost certainly, force-fed the main course,” Ms Miti warned.
JUST TO UNLOCK YOUR MIND
There is already a chilling-mixed reactions among citizens about this unofficial term limit conversations.
Bill 7’s passage does not, in itself, remove the presidential two-term limit or establish that Mr Hichilema intends to seek a third term.
But Ms Miti believes the constitutional changes could have wider political consequences.
Some MPs have already openly urged parliament to start the discussions of presidential term limit. And according to Ms Miti’s argument, the MPs under proportional representation will have to play the loyalty card of “you can’t bite a finger that feed you,”
President Hakainde Hichilema prior to the general elections in Solwezi when he revealed the MPs who according to him did not vote for Bill 7 he said, “we don’t want MPs like that,” – MPs who don’t align themselves with the party’s direction. That kind of authoritarian approach will force nominated MPs to say yes to whatever UPND wants.
President Hichilema has so far neither endorsed nor condemned the debates of the term limit.
[Brave Heart News | Unlocking Minds]