Zambia President HH Wants To Increase The Term From 5 Years To 7 Years – Fred M’membe
Socialist Party (SP) president Fred M’membe has lamented that President Hakainde Hichilema is destroying the country.
This comes after the expulsion of nine Patriotic Front (PF) MPs by the Miles Sampa camp.
Addressing the media today, the opposition leader enlightened Zambians that the Head of State is behind the ordeal with intentions of manipulating the Republican Constitution.
“It is not an internal matter of the PF. It is an issue of very serious national consequences. It is not about Mr Miles, it is about Mr Hakainde Hichilema wanting to obtain the majority in Parliament that he failed to obtain through normal elections,” he argued.
“The purpose of that is to give himself a majority in parliament that he needed to make constitutional changes, to make amendments to our constitution. He wants to effect changes to the constitution to perpetuate his rule, to entrench his corrupt regime power for a long time.”
Dr M’membe observed that Zambians have been very consistent on the constitutional issues.
He added that Zambians have never allowed the constitution to be manipulated easily.
“That is what is behind this. It is not about the PF. Its about his own personal rule. We cannot accept this as a country, we must not accept this as a people. This will be the beginning of the destruction of this country,” he said.
“Zambian people have resisted any effort to manipulate the constitution. They resisted it under the PF, Mr Hakainde himself and his team resisted that on Bill 10. We should resist it the same way. Why does he want to change the Constitution? He wants to ensure that he stays in office much longer. He wants to increase the term from five years to seven years. He wants to remove the 50 plus one clause, so that there is no rerun. He wants to remove a running mate so that he can appoint a vice president of his choice. These are some of the fundamental things he wants to change the constitution for.”
He said the Head of State wants the number of MPs from the opposition to drop down so that automatically they have a two third majority in Parliament.
Dr M’membe explained that such a development would enable them effect the changes they want.
“This is not acceptable. We cannot continue on this path. Mr Hichilema is destroying this country. He has failed to deliver what he promised in terms of economic benefits. Now he wants to butcher the Constitution of this country, to protect himself from his failures. This must not be accepted,” he said.
“And it may not stop at the nine that have been removed. They may continue to remove more people. And in fact, those who remain also will be intimidated into supporting or tolerating what he wants to do.”
The SP leader warned Zambians that President Hichilema has no restraint on what he wants to do.
“If we allow Mr Hichilema to take this path the country will be destroyed for a very long time. A very dangerous precedence is being set. We know he won’t stop easily unless you the Zambian people stop him,” he said.
