2021 POLLS IN DOUBT?
COVID-19 may knock out elections if not controlled
COVID- 19 may derail the 2021 general and Presidential elections because the disease burden will be untenable, unless all Zambians are committed to fighting the pandemic and observ in safety measures, the Young African Leaders Initiative ( YALI) has said.
YALI president, Andrew Ntewewe said the country has almost 12 months left before it goes to the polls, and warned that if left unchecked COVID-19 which has caused so many deaths in the country could annihilate the nation.
He warned that rather than get preoccupied with the elections, the nation should come together and deal with the current threat from the covid 19 pandemic.
He said this was not the time for the coming elections to take centre stage because the nation has a more serious threat to deal with.
“The 2021 elections that most political parties are focused on might not be there because of COVID-19, and concerted efforts needed to fight it because people would want to vote in a COVID-19 free environment,” Mr Ntewewe said.
And YALI has welcome submissions from stakeholders that the UPND should be disqualified from the 2021 general elections if the party does not go to convention.
He also said the calls from the people including the party members that the UPND should hold its intra-party elections were genuine because they were backed by the constitution.
Mr. Ntewewe said yesterday in an interview that the UPND party were raping the Zambian constitution by failing to go to the convention since 2006.
“It is constitutional for any political party to hold intra party elections, article 60 says a political party should hold a convention before going for general elections,” he said.
Mr Ntewewe said as YALI they were happy that more people have joined calls for the UPND to hold its party elections because they have on several occasions been attacked for raising the matter.
He described the UPND leader, Hakainde Huchilema as the worst political party leader in upholding the democratic principles of the country.
The YALI president said the UNPD leader has been going against the law by appointing the vice president and central committee on his own without going through the electoral process as provided for by article 60 of the Zambian constitution.
Mr Ntewewe said as YALI they were ready to join other stakeholders in making submissions to the elections board to have the UPND disqualified if it doesnot go to the convention to elect the presidential candidate for 2021.
He said is was dictatorship for Mr. Huchilema who he said sees himself as a god to hold on to the party presidency without going for a convention.
Meanwhile, Mr Ntewewe says the 2021 general elections were hanging on a thread because of COVID-19 hence the need for political parties to cease fire and work together to end the deadly disease.
Mr Ntewewe said this was not the time for political parties to level accusations against each other but to join hands in fighting the pandemic that is claiming lives of many Zambians.
He said it was immature for the UPND to allege that ruling Patriotic Front (PF) was instructing the Zambia police not to allow them to hold meetings on the pretext of the escalating cases of COVID-19.