Patriotic Front deputy media director Antonio Mwanza says his party will make sure UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema dies in prison if he continues making “seditious and treasonous pronouncements”.

Receiving some defectors from the UPND, Tuesday, Mwanza, who recently defected from the opposition FDD to the ruling party, warned Hichilema saying, “[this time], we are not going to give him 127 days.

“It should be made very clear that those sentiments that he has continued to peddle that what happened in Zimbabwe, the coup that happened in Zimbabwe and what has happened in Uganda, the unconstitutional usurping of power can happen in this country, I think, I don’t want to say much but he has to learn a few things from the 127 days he had. If that 127 days in prison was not enough let him continue to peddle these seditious and treasonous pronouncements that he is making and we are not going to give him 127 days. He will die in prison,” Mwanza said.

“The Constitution of Zambia is very clear under which circumstances we can have elections. We amended the Constitution under the leadership of President Edgar Chagwa Lungu who for the first time in the history of this country signed for a clause to have a running mate so that in case of a death like we witnesses under the leadership of President Micheal Sata as well as Levy Mwanawasa, we can avoid an election. So there will be no early election in this country, there is no constitutional crisis in this country to warrant an early election, that is day dreaming on the part of UPND and Hakainde Hichilema.”

And Mwanza said it was pointless to belong to a political party that was constantly taking about a non-existent election petition.

“You cannot continue to belong to a political party that has got no agenda, a political party that is just talking about elections and petitions every day and a political party that wishes bad luck, drought, that wishes Cholera, that wishes all the evil that should befall this country so that they can have an opportunity for them to lead. The UPND have no manifesto to talk about, they have no credible checks and balances to give to PF and the only thing they can do is to wish for the bad to happen in this country so that then, out of that natural calamity, they can take over the reigns of over. I want to use this opportunity to clearly state to the Zambian people that there is no petition which is in any court of law here in Zambia or outside, or in Jupiter which concerns the election of President Edgar Lungu in the 2016 general election. There is no such petition,” he said.

“The law is very clear, the petition was taken before the courts of law, the UPND failed to produce evidence and witnesses in the 14 days that is mandated by law and the petition was thrown out because of the technicality that as a party they failed to produce evidence and witnesses.”

He said even the case which was active in the High Court relating to whether or not the UPND was heard was an academic exercise.

“There is a case in the High Court which the UPND have taken to court to deal with whether their right to be heard was given to them or not. Now the High Court is a surbordinate court to the Constitutional Court so whatever the High Court rules, even if it rules that UPND was not given the right to be heard, it has no impact whatsoever on the outcome of the petition because the High Court cannot instruct the Constitutional Court which is a superior court to the High Court. So whatever UPND is doing is purely academic and it will be used for the archives as University of Zambia and UNILUS and other universities,” said Mwanza.

“But also, to the UPND supporters, the issue of the petition is used by the president Hakainde Hichilema of the UPND to hoodwink his supporters to believe that somehow there will be a miracle and that the case can be heard. He is using it for political purposes to continue holding on to power within the UPND. He is using it even to run away from the convention. That’s why you see that instead of a convention, they are busy cherry picking who is supposed to hold senior positions in the party. So it is a political ploy to run away from a convention within UPND and to run away from the people that are questioning this person who has failed to deliver in the last five elections that he has had.”