Commonwealth role in dialogue questioned

WE SHOULD expect more confusion after the national dialogue and reconciliation process facilitated by the Commonwealth because there is no single political intervention facilitated by an international entity which has given birth to desirable results in Africa other than fanning more chaos, Edward Mumbi has warned.

Mr. Mumbi said the Commonwealth must never entertain the idea of discussing the 2016 elections as being part of the dialogue package as that would technically make it an interested party in the dialogue process.

He said that was because the Commonwealth was among international election observers who declared the whole electoral process as free and fair and validated the election of President Edgar Lungu.

He said it was surprising that international bodies seemingly sought to cause confusion on the continent by making unnecessary negotiations which in most cases were against sitting Governments but warned that Zambians will never tolerate any machinations towards regime change as the current Government was le- gitimately elected by the people through a transparent system.

He said even the appointment of Ibrahim Gambari as special advisor on the political dialogue was not only misplaced but a show that the Commonwealth did not have respect for President Lungu as Professor Gambari was not an equivalent to President Lungu to enable him discuss anything with a sitting president.

“We expected the Commonwealth to appoint a special envoy who must have served as a president for another country and has insight on governance issue from experience and not just an academician who has never been in that position. We would love to caution the Commonwealth on what they tolerate and what they will not discuss in the dialogue.

He urged international organisations not to bring unnecessary confusions on the African continent.

“The Commonwealth must exercise caution when they are dealing with a sovereign state with a sworn-in presidents unless their interest is to cause political turmoil among African countries because most of the interventions by most international bodies in Africa have ended up in conflicts and we don’t want to see that happening in Zambia,” he said.