SOUTH PF CANES ‘SPOILER’ UPND MPS
THEruling PF leadership in Southern Province is shocked that the opposition UPND has made a huge celebration out of the collapsed Bill 10.
PF Provincial Information and Publicity Secretary, Trymore Mweenda, charged that the behaviour of the UPND Members of Parliament (MPs) was counterproductive.
This is contained in a statement issued in Livingstone yesterday.
"We are shocked because Bill 10 was not a PF Bill as UPND wants to portray the matter, but a Bill for the Zambian people, which PF supported because of the many good and progressive clauses that were contained in the Bill," he said.
Mr Mweenda said that his party took the approach of genuine dialogue on the Bill while the UPND took a more simplistic approach of walking out each time the Bill came up for debate in parliament.
He said the Bill had been thrown away like a baby together with the bath water all because of narrow partisan interest.
"We are not surprised because that is what UPND stands for, our memories are still fresh of how the UPND vehemently opposed and demonized the referendum on the bill of rights not too long ago, which ended up being rejected.
“If had been supported, it could have given Zambians the right to demand from
Government basic necessities and provision of life like water, education and health among others," Mr Mweenda said.
He said that in rejecting Bill 10, the UPND did not want to see youths, the disabled and women take up positions in Parliament through the proportional representation.
Mr Mweenda said had it been supported, the Bill could have also addressed the costly by-elections every time there was death, resignation or defection of a Member of Parliament, Mayor, Council Chairperson or Councillor.
"The UPND are today celebrating, we can only hope that they will also be celebrating come next year because as the PF will go to the Zambian people and explain to them what they have been denied by this narrow self-serving position taken by the UPND not to support Bill 10.
"We can safely say the battle lines have been drawn and its game on, there are bigger battles ahead," he said.
Mr Mweenda said that President Edgar Lungu deserves another term and the party has every confidence next year’s elections will be a walk in the park for him because his works across the country will speak for him and the PF.