By HELLEN TEMBO –

.Hichilema

THE United Party for National Development (UPND) leader Hakainde Hichilema has said his party will not set any pre-conditions for participating in the Zambia Centre for Interparty Dialogue this year.
This follows calls by the three church mother bodies on Monday to all political leaders to coexist and commit to the national dialogue.
The UPND had initially stated that they would go for dialogue only after the agenda was set to see if it conformed to their interests.
Mr Hichilema said the only way to resolve issues affecting the country was through genuine unconditional dialogue.
He said in a statement yesterday that the UPND was willing, and available to participate in the upcoming dialogue.
“We would like to emphasise once more that we are not setting any conditions for our participation in this dialogue because we believe that the only way for us to resolve this issue is through genuine and unconditional dialogue,” Mr Hichilima said.
He said the UPND supported the statement that was issued by the three church mother bodies, the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia, Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB) and the Christian Council of Zambia (CCZ).
Mr Hichilema urged the three church mother bodies to speed up the process of pushing for unconditional dialogue soon.
Patriotic Front Party (PF) Secretary General Davies Mwila said the PF had always been willing to dialogue with no conditions attached.
Mr Mwila said dialogue and reconciliation had been their stance towards their opponents.
He said it was important to dialogue and work together as one for the sake of the public.
Mr Mwila said the PF was more than willing to dialogue, and welcomed the three church mother bodies’ move.
He reiterated that the dialogue should not be between two political parties but all parties in Zambia.