. LUNGU
By REBECCA MUSHOTA –
PRESIDENT Edgar Lungu has condemned the riotous behaviour of suspected United Party for National Development (UPND) members in Choma, stating that it is such incidences that make the Public Order Act (POA) necessary.
Mr Lungu said there was need to review the POA to make it more effective, but that it was impossible to do away with it completely, as some people could take advantage of that and terrorise the public like what had happened in Choma.
Mr Lungu said it was wrong for cadres to cause anarchy and start terrorising members of the public.
The President was speaking yesterday at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport (KKIA) when he arrived from Eastern Province where he undertook a three-day tour.
“The happenings in Southern Province, that is unfortunate. Attacking innocent people, destroying property and forcing people to display their party symbol, that is bad,” Mr Lungu said.
The Head of State said he was informed that any person that did not display the party symbol of the cadres was attacked by the UPND cadres.
Mr Lungu said that kind of behaviour was not democratic because in a democracy, people were free to be part of any political party.
“When I went to Southern Province, they raised their symbol at me and I raised mine, that is democracy,” he said.
President Lungu said it was upto Zambians to decide for themselves if that was the sort of behaviour they wanted to tolerate.
Mr Lungu said Zambians did not want that sort of bahaviour as the messages that they responded to in the three provinces he just visited this year (Copperbelt, Southern and Eastern) were those of peace, unity and development.
He said his visits to the three provinces were successful and Zambians responded well to him in all the areas he went.
The President said it was clear from those visits that the Patriotic Front (PF) would scoop this year’s elections by 60 per cent plu- one of the votes.
Given a longer time, the PF would have won by 80 per cent plus-one.
Mr Lungu said he was confident that the PF would win this year’s elections considering the meetings he had and the positive responses he received on the ground.
