‘Slipping into dictatorship’

THE Conference of Catholic Bishops has warned Zambia “is slipping towards dictatorship” as 48 MPs were suspended for 30 days after they boycotted Zambian President Edgar Lungu’s state of the nation address in March.

The MPs launched the boycott arguing that Lungu was not the legitimate winner of last year’s poll. The suspended MPs represent nearly the whole parliamentary opposition party of 58.

Parliamentary Speaker Patrick Matibini labelled the MPs’ boycott “gross misconduct”.