REMAIN LAW ABIDING

NOW that parties are almost done with intra- party polls, the focus will now be cast on the local government and parliamentary candidates who will be adopted to make the final list of contenders in the August 12 general elections.

Yes, controversy always erupts during adoptions and particularly when the final list is announced in respective parties, but that should not scuttle the entire game.

All political parties must focus their energies on selling their ideas and innovations as prescribed in their manifestos while mobilising more members to join them.

Thus, it will be a waste of time and energy to poke one’s nose in what is obtaining in the competitor’s camp. That can be done quietly to effectively capitalise on the shortcomings of such a competitor.

Lately, there has been finger- pointing about which party is more violent than the other instead of political officials concentrating on cleaning their own houses.

Therefore, political parties ought to concentrate on selling ideas rather that pointing out wrongs in the neighbour’s ‘bedroom.’

Political parties must perfect their manifestos and party constitutions; they should also make sure that they understand the laws of the land.

It is prudent to understand the rules of the game before kick- off and in this case party leaders and their members alike must regularly read through the Republican Constitution.

Obviously, a number of political leaders have not had sight of the constitution to understand critical issues in political circles and their duties as leaders.

From the conduct of some political party leaders, it is evident that they are ignorant of the provisions of the Republican Constitution.

Some political leaders do not know their rights and limits, hence they go overboard and in certain cases, they complain about issues that are in fact enshrined in the statutes as their rights.

According to the Constitution of Zambia (Amendment) [No. 2 of 2016 article 60 (1) (A), a political party has the right to disseminate information on social and economic programmes of a national character and of its political ideology.

This is a right which is in the constitution, but less practiced by some political parties that only concentrate on shooting in their air.

Under the same article, (c) states that a political party shall conduct primary elections for the selection of candidates.

On this one, too, there are so many political parties under the register of the office of the Registrar of Societies that have never bothered to conduct primary elections, but continue contaminating the political landscape with trivial statements.

It is an insult to the public for some political parties to be trivialising political issues and scandalising their opponents instead of growing their own parties.

Some parties cannot go beyond issuing media statements because they have no structures, contrary to the constitution which requires a political party to have a national character.

Political parties should go by what is contained in Article 60 (2) (A) (B) (C) which state that a political party shall promote the values and principles specified in this constitution; have a national character and promote and uphold national unity.

The question which begs answers is: how many political parties have made it a point to promote national unity?

Sadly, some political parties working to desecrate national divide the nation.

In a nutshell, leaders must stick to the moral values and encourage members to stick to statutes. have actually been values and also to