Rainbow party president Wynter Kabimba, says UPND members of parliament are exaggerating their grudge against President Edgar
Lungu.
And Kabimba says it would be a waste of resources to hold another Referendum because it would fail, as people still don’t understand the concept.
In an interview, Kabimba said it appeared to him like it was the President’s face which the MPs did not want to see, wondering how different Vice-President Inonge Wina was from the Head of State.
“Unless the UPND can explain the principle on which they based their boycott otherwise, it looks to me and even to the Rainbow Party like they are personalizing the issues. It’s like what they don’t want to see when they go to parliament is Edgar Lungu’s face. But I don’t see the difference between Inonge Wina who is leader of the House and on Friday they even stand up to raise issues to her about the various concerns they have regarding the administration of government. And interestingly, Inonge Wina is Vice-President to Edgar Lungu but they don’t want to attend an address by Edgar Lungu? So I am failing to
appreciate the principle on which that action is based, maybe you can address them as to why,” Kabimba said.
And Kabimba said another Referendum to pass the Bill of Rights would fail.
“Our position in the Rainbow Party on the Referendum is that the issue of the Referendum as you saw in the last election, the Referendum was defeated so even if you had it again, I am sure it would still be defeated and I think that is what the PF is scared of. We had argued before the election that to hold a Referendum together with the presidential elections would miss the whole principle of the Referendum because the people may not understand what they are voting for or against because they didn’t understand its benefit, but the government insisted that we hold it,” Kabimba said.
He agreed with President Lungu’s view that the country must use its resources for other developmental issues, saying the Referendum was not a priority.
“We must have the Referendum but not right now, currently we have a situation where we are so much in debt as a country and for us in the Rainbow Party we don’t list the Referendum as a major priority. The people of Zambia are going to bed hungry, the food prices keep on going up, people are drinking brown water in Lusaka and elsewhere and some people have no water at all. So let us deal with the priorities that address the welfare of the people immediately and then the Referendum can be attended to much later,” said Kabimba.
