The UPND in Southern Province says the proposal to allow the formation of government of national unity by the National Dialogue Forum was aimed at giving the Patriotic Front an opportunity to form a coalition government with smaller opposition political parties if it loses the 2021 election.

In a statement, Southern Province UPND deputy spokesperson Neto Halwabala stated that the PF pushed in the proposal because the party feared an imminent loss at the crucial August, 2021, general election.

“We are not surprised to note that the Patriotic Front National Dialogue Forum has proposed for government of national unity. This is so because it is very much aware that, just like the previous two general elections even in 2021 it will still lose again. And some of the small political parties will be bought by Patriotic Front so that it can form a government of national unity after losing the 2021 general elections,” Halwabala stated.

“It is myopic of PF National Dialogue Forum to think of proposing government of national unity when we already have a provision of 50 per cent + 1 threshold in our current Constitution. It is time that PF must not continue to take Zambians for granted. The whole National Dialogue Forum was a sham, which meant only to produce a PF manifesto, not a Zambian Constitution, which must stand the test of time.”

He added that the National Dialogue Forum was purely PF-driven.

“We cannot have a Constitution refinement process run by a political party instead of people-driven process. Furthermore, it is unfortunate that even before the Constitution is complete with a complete Bill of Rights, PF has shown to be manipulative. It is, therefore, for this reason that the Zambian people cannot trust them to govern the country,” stated Halwabala.

“Due to dictatorial leadership under Edgar Lungu and greedy individuals surrounding him, many people are suffering and living a miserable life, especially in rural communities. As UPND in Southern Province, we are happy with those that thought ‘we were being mischievous as a party to abscond the Patriotic Front National Dialogue Forum’. They are now agreeing with us that the whole process was marred with political manipulation!”