.Siliya

By KASONDE KASONDE –
GOVERNMENT has called on the United Party for National Development (UPND) to keep the United Nations (UN) out of Zambia’s internal politics.
Dora Siliya, Chief Government Spokesperson and also minister of Information and Broadcasting Services Dora has said that the UPND was acting out of petty politics attacking an organization of international standing that had served Zambia well.
Ms siliya at a briefing yesterday said it was sad that the UPND had decided to drag the UN into its petty politics because of selfish motives.
She said the Government and the people of Zambia have enjoyed a good relationship with the UN had offered assistance whenever the country was in need of emergency help.
The UPND has recently accused the UN Country Representative in Zambia Janet Rogan of aiding the rigging of the 2016 general elections in favour of the Patriotic Front (PF) and of facilitating the funding of the Zambia Centre for Interparty Dialogue (ZCID) so that it could slant the planned political dialogue that in favour of the PF.
Ms Siliya said Government wanted to nurture the relationship it had enjoyed with the UN and would not allow it to be destroyed by some selfish politicians who wanted to ascend to power by all means.
“I think if we continue to pull international bodies into our politics it becomes unconducive for the democratic processes,” Ms Siliya said.
Ms Siliya said politicians should sell their messages to the people who had the right to decide whether to agree with them or not and part of being a good politician was having the humility to accept defeat and move on.
She said the Patriotic Front (PF) was ready to dialogue but the country could not continue talking about the dialogue process endlessly. Rather, all parties involved should prepare their issues and submit them to the ZCID.
Ms Siliya said once the submissions were done then the dialogue process could commence and then real issues could be addressed instead of endlessly talking about the dialogue.