VJ Mwaanga
Veteran Politician, Dr Vernon Mwanga has asked President elect Edgar Lungu and his closest rival Hakainde Hichilema to join hands and dialogue, for the sake of mother Zambia
“I would like to congratulate the people of Zambia for having turned up peacefully and in large numbers on 11th August 2016 to exercise their democratic right to vote for political leaders of their choice in the presidential, parliamentary and local
authority elections. Our country has had a long history of holding peaceful campaigns and voting peacefully on Election Day. The violence and vitriolic language we witnessed in the campaigns, accusations and counter accusations of who was responsible for it, fails to address the real issues of lack of serious political leadership, which is capable of condemning any and all violence regardless of who is involved and for whatever reasons,” Mwaanga stated.
“Violence is violence and it has no place in our democracy. It must be strongly condemned. Those responsible for ordering and carrying out these dastardly acts deserve to be sent to jail. The question is why should we be having this violence now, involving our two major political parties, UPND and PF? There is too much hostility and mistrust between leaders and supporters of the two major parties, partly arising from an absence of dialogue between them.”
“President-elect Edgar Lungu and Hakainde Hichilema must be encouraged to have dialogue. The last election showed that our citizens are split right down the middle. It is the duty of the Republican President to initiate genuine dialogue between him and leaders of opposition political parties so that our country can go through a process of healing. Experience has shown that when their supporters see their leaders meeting and talking one to one to discuss national issues, the hostility between them will reduce considerably and the leaders will begin to build the much needed trust between them,” Mwaanga stated.
“Opposition leaders and their supporters should not be seen as enemies of the party in government and vice versa. They have an important and critical role
to play in every democracy by providing checks and balances to the government of the day and to ensure that it is tolerant to opposing views and remains firmly committed to good governance, human rights and the rule of law.”
He also hoped that Zambia would include a proportional representation clause in the Constitution, saying it would defuse the tribal tendencies.
“Going forward, I hope that we as a country can, in an inclusive manner, look at our amended Constitution afresh and consider introducing proportional representation for parliamentary and local government elections because it would defuse
the tribal tendencies for people to retreat into their provincial and tribal enclaves when seeking election to political office. One just has to look at how many
members of parliament are being elected or standing in their tribal areas, which is not consistent with our national motto of One Zambia, One Nation,” stated Mwaanga.