WE’RE READY TO WELCOME PF MPS WHO VOTED FOR BILL 7 – UPND

WE’RE READY TO WELCOME PF MPS WHO VOTED FOR BILL 7 – UPND

UPND Alliance Chairperson Charles Milupi says the ruling party is ready to welcome PF MPs who supported Bill 7, following threats by the opposition party to expel them.

And Government Chief Whip Stafford Mulusa says all PF members of parliament who voted for Bill 7 are safe, stating that only Robert Chabinga has the power to suspend or expel them from the party.

Meanwhile, State House Chief Communications Specialist Clayson Hamasaka says Bill 7 is now history, thus there is no need for sections of society to continue demonising the MPs who voted for it.

Since Sunday, the PF has been threatening its MPs, stating that any member who debated or voted for Bill 7 should consider themselves automatically expelled.

Giving an update yesterday, acting PF president Given Lubinda announced the expulsion of the MPs.

In an interview, Thursday, Milupi said the UPND Alliance was ready to welcome them to serve in their respective constituencies.

“So, who is going to expel who? If they go on with that process, they are entrenching the confusion that is already there because first of all it’s an illegal thing to do. Secondly, they are not bringing the unity they require to be an effective opposition. So, first of all they have not yet been expelled, the members will make their own decisions but we think we are an attractive opposition, we are an attractive alliance and our doors remain open for those that want to work with us and so on. And some of these people being threatened are very good people even in their constituencies. If they come and work with us, an effect would be made when it comes to MPs because we will choose the best people who stand the best chance to win the seat for us and not only that, but also to serve the people. But let’s wait and see whether they will carry through, I don’t know what process they are going to use,” he said.

“Nobody is paying attention to them. First of all, Brian Mundubile, because he is now a faction, said that all PF members should not attend Parliament, they should boycott it on that day. Did they boycott? No, the way we sat in there during voting even the opposition benches were full of people, there were few people who were not there. But that’s how the opposition has always been, so Mundubile was not listened to and I’ve seen also Given Lubinda, they wrote a letter signed by Lubinda, he was calling for a three-line whip and that three-line whip was to say don’t debate in favour of this, don’t vote for it. So, even though he issued a three-line whip nobody [listened], all of them who went there including those who debated, they all voted. So, they’ll keep saying whatever they are saying, nobody is paying attention to them including their own members of parliament”.

Milupi argued that punishing MPs for their parliamentary votes would be unlawful.

“If you now punish people for what they have done in the National Assembly, practically you are breaking the law. So those that are threatening, you are already breaking the law. So I would expect that a party like PF which was in government would understand that provision of the law. That for debating in the House, for casting votes in the House, you cannot now go and threaten them or punish them. If you do that, that is unlawful. That is why so many of them get into trouble with the law because they think they’re still in power and therefore they can break the law and no one will hold them accountable. In this particular case, I think that to punish someone or to deprive someone of their rights just because they voted in a particular manner, we’ll see what happens,” said Milupi.

“Point number two is they were not able to convince their people to vote against something that is very good. So, they made the mistake themselves, that is how divided they are because they have many factions there. Their processes in choosing leadership, starting from the convention held by Miles Sampa, the appointment of Robert Chabinga in Parliament and so on, has resulted in Chabinga being Leader of Opposition. That’s what’s recognised by the law, the Registrar of Societies. Now in the debate, the Leader of Opposition recognised by law said we are in support and urged his members to vote and he said none should be threatened. So, whoever is now saying they are going to do this and so on, on what basis are they going to do that? Because the law recognises Chabinga and his team as leaders of the opposition, their chief whip also voted for that. Then I think there was a total of nine members of the central committee, whether for Lubinda or Mundubile if I’m not mistaken, they voted for it”.

In a separate interview, Thursday, Mulusa said the PF must wake up and realise that the party was now in the hands of Chabinga.

“There is no battle. The person who is in charge of PF today is Chabinga. All those are just for smattering. For instance, just yesterday or the other day, there were nominations in Chawama. Did you see the PF-supported president going to campaign with all other political parties? So, there is no one who has the legitimacy to punish people except for Honourable Chabinga, who is the acting president of PF. They even know that nothing can happen. Even the members of parliament themselves know that nothing can happen, that is why they are being abused through social media by other members of PF. But the power lies in the hands of Chabinga. No one is able to write an expulsion letter, suspension letter and it becomes effective. And where is Chabinga? He is part of the team that supported the Bill [7]. All the members of PF that supported the Bill are very, very safe, no one will intimidate them. Not even their acting president. I don’t know which faction that is. Given Lubinda, he has no power to suspend anybody. He has no power to expel anyone. They should not continue dreaming. They should wake up. The PF must wake up and realise that the party is now in the hands of Chabinga, legitimately,” he said.

“All those who are trying to say, ‘no, let’s do this, let’s do this,’ they should just form their own political parties. They are wasting their time. They should go back to Chabinga. Chabinga was on TV. I saw him, he said, ‘can you bury [former president] Edgar Lungu then you can come to the table and talk about PF?’ They have no power whatsoever. They have nothing to do with PF. So members of parliament that voted for the Bill should not even worry because none of those who are actually abusing them have the right to suspend them or expel them from the Patriotic Front, it is only Chabinga who has the power to do so”.

Mulusa denied claims that government paid some opposition and independent MPs to vote for Bill 7.

“It’s got nothing to do with money. If the previous administration were using money, that was then, we knew about it. They were using money, they had too much money. Even after members of parliament, some of them were paid money, they didn’t vote for Bill 10 because they saw that it was a bad amendment. But for us, we are using the same amendment to say this what you have, you are coming from a huge constituency, that constituency might be delimited. This is an opportunity for constituencies that are not manageable to be managed by reducing the size. That is how people supported it. So, which money? [There was] no money. Except people don’t just understand that we are very practically good in politics and also, we are able to convince,” said Mulusa.

“You know every Bill comes in Parliament. You need to make sure that you sell it to the members of parliament, they understand it and they support it. So, there is nothing like that. And as we started a long time ago, when they were politicking out there, we were engaging individual members of parliament on the benefits. And members of parliament are happy to make sure that their five-year term that was just on paper is now practical. The Constitution says that members of parliament are supposed to be in the house for how long? Five years, isn’t it? But they don’t do [it] for five years”.

Meanwhile, Hamasaka stressed that the Bill passed with unanimous parliamentary support and was, therefore, now history.

“It’s their (people’s) right to continue [talking about Bill 7] but I don’t see how it benefits them to continue crying over something which is history, it passed unanimously. This is not about UPND, it’s not about independents, it’s not about PF, it’s about the country. It passed unanimously, there were no absent votes in the first round, of course there were two opposing votes, then in the second round there were no absent votes, there was no ‘no’ vote. It was 100 percent for all members of parliament who were present there. So, it doesn’t help anybody by demonising who voted for it. For the government, we are not demonising those who were against it. Have you ever seen anybody in government demonising those who were against it? It was their democratic right to oppose it,” said Hamasaka.

“So, we are not demonising anybody, so why should other people demonise those who were for it? So, let’s move on as a country in unity. Let’s show the same unity we showed in Parliament, let’s show the same unity on many other issues. In resolving energy, same unity, in agriculture, same unity, in tourism, same unity, in the mining sector, same unity. We’ll achieve a lot in unity, such unity which we showed in Parliament was very important. We don’t see why people should continue demonising each other on something which is history”.

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