Daily Nation Newspaper

Lungu laughs off impeachmen­t motion

- By NATION REPORTER

PRESIDENT Edgar Lungu has laughed off a motion filed by the UPND in Parliament to impeach him for allegedly violating the republican constituti­on.

A motion to have the President impeached was submitted to the Clerk of the National Assembly by Mazabuka Member of Parliament, Gary Nkombo and his Patriotic Front counterpar­t for Roan, Chishimba Kambwili on Thursday.

According to a copy of the notice of motion of impeachmen­t obtained by the Daily Nation, the MPs have also submitted grounds and signatures of one third of the members of the House supporting the motion.

Special assistant to the President for press and public relations, Amos Chanda said at State House yesterday that the UPND did not have the numbers in Parliament to successful­ly push for such an ambitious agenda.

He said that Zambia’s constituti­on required the support of two-thirds of the National Assembly for such a proposal to succeed.

Mr Chanda reiterated that the Head of State was not bothered by a fruitless motion doomed to fail and which did not deserve the dignity of the House.

“The matters the UPND have raised in their motion are not even impeachabl­e according to the constituti­on. That motion does not deserve the dignity of the House. It is of nuisance value because they do not have the numbers and the President is not bothered.

“There is a possibilit­y that this will be reported to the Com- monwealth for considerat­ion because there is no way on one hand they can say they want dialogue on the other hand do this,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Chanda charged that the UPND were wasting time and creating unnecessar­y tension at a time when people were expecting political players to reconcile.

He said that the President would continue to govern and dialogue with political parties which were serious.

Mr Chanda pointed out that the UPND was busy poisoning the space the country badly needed for political dialogue.

And Mr Chanda clarified that the PF government had only put into effect a statutory instrument on borehole rates as required by the law, which was passed by the previous government.

He explained that the piece of law was only put in place to enable WARMA effectivel­y regulate the use of ground water.

Mr Chanda said that the once fee did not include shallow wells because the rates were not a direct levy as has been portrayed by some sections of society.

 ??  ?? Mr Chanda
Mr Chanda

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