Regime-change clique not going anywhere, says pact

THE ill-conceived scheme for regime change being orchestrated by some disgruntled political parties will fail in 2021 because no- one becomes a Republican President unless the Zambian people give him the mandate, a consortium of political parties and non-governmental organisations has said. Consortium spokesperson, Spuki Mulemwa said Zambians in their collective intelligence would renew their social contract or extend President Edgar Lungu’s mandate to govern for another five years given his exemplary performance during the few years he had been in office. Mr Mulemwa however said the group was alive to a clique of disgruntled elements’ attempt to agitate for regime change by manipulation and peddling lies about President Lungu in an effort to erode the people’s confidence in him and influence their perception about his leadership style. “Zambians will recall that the said disgruntled elements in an alliance with media outlets hostile to Government have been fighting President Lungu as they never wanted him to be a Republican President. “For example, the ill-conceived Third–Term Debate has been orchestrated to influence Zambians’ perception that President Lungu is not eligible to contest the 2021 polls when in fact he is eligible,” Mr Mulemwa said in a statement. Mr Mulemwa said the Constitutional Court delivered a landmark judgment that declared that President Lungu was eligible to contest the 2021 polls. He said all law-abiding citizens were expected to respect the court’s decision. Mr Mulemwa said it was now clear that those fighting President Lungu were scared of him contesting 2021 polls as he would crush their preferred presidential candidate yet again. “But no matter what those fighting President Lungu are scheming against him in favour of their preferred presidential candidate, the Zambian people will renew President Lungu’s mandate to govern for another five-year term,” he said. Mr Mulemwa urged Zambians not to be swayed by the lies of President Lungu’s enemies as they were driven by selfish interests.