Nakachinda Trashes UPND Spearheaded Opposition Alliance
The Felix Mutati MMD faction National Secretary Raphael Nakachinda says the 10 opposition political parties that met at Pamodzi Hotel were only serving a UPND agenda.
Nakachinda who is in Northern Province with Mutati told his audience on Radio Mano that the opposition political parties had reduced themselves to making an individual President and not greater goals of the Zambian people.
He said that MMD would not join such causes but focus on trying to serve the Zambian public.
Nakacinda said the meeting was not about Zambians but a UPND strategy that does not add any value to the common Zambian and that his party has so many serious issues to attend to in relation to advancing the interests of the Zambian people.
“…they know that as a mother of democracy we don’t entertain such antics. We are serious with our discourse in terms of advancing the interest of the Zambian people. When is there is a fundamental issue, that is not political in nature but is national in nature, as a party we do participate,” he said.
“All we can say for now is to wish them well, let them use their strategy and we see how far they can go. Because we are alive to the UPND political strategy of assembling a few individuals that they usually gather around them so that they show that they have the support of other opposition parties. Basically it is called stage managing and I think for us we have more serious issues that we need to address.”
“Hon Felix Mutati is not only involved in the political life of Zambia, he is also called upon to advance the interest of the continent of Africa. Recently he was in Uganda and then Egypt and now we are here in Northern Province. I think we have more serious issues that we need to address in the interest of Zambia and our people on the continent,” Nakacinda said.
And Nakacinda has challenged political players in the country to stop preoccupying themselves with the Constitutional Court ruling on the interpretation of a term in relation to the amended constitution but instead appeal to the Zambian people by providing superior ideals which will win them votes.
“You want to be voted in because another person has been disqualified? I think that is undemocratic. Win an election because you have superior ideals, ideals that the Zambian people are interested to support and vote for!,” Nakachinda said.
“That should be the thinking of any political player, we shouldn’t have a situation where you are wishing for another candidate ill today so that you can have a free ride to go into State House then it means you have nothing to sell. I think as a principal president Edgar Chagwa Lungu whether he is candidate in 2021 or not should not be the preoccupation of political players if they have something to offer to the Zambian people.”
“Coming to the Constitutional Court ruling itself, the only matter which was before the court was to interpret what was provided for in the constitution in relation to the old constitution. The new constitution provides that when a Vice President who is the running mate takes over the Presidency for whatever reason, maybe the president is incapacitated or he dies, if that person is in office for 3 years it means that 3 years will be counted as a term, if it is less than 3 years then it is not a term and that president will still qualify to run as a president.”
On the UPND stance on National Dialogue, Nakachinda said, “Zambians should be able to hold people accountable, the UPND had a press briefing where they addressed the issue of benefits for Presidents and said Edgar Lungu does not qualify because he has only been president for 1 year 6months and that he does not qualify to call it a term, that was in 2016 because they were hoping they would win the 2016 elections.”