Speaker of the National Assembly Dr Patrick Matibini yesterday told the House to move on from the UPND boycott and to give him a chance to digest the points of order which he was bombarded with on Tuesday.
Ruling on a point of order raised by Chitambo PF member of parliament Remember Mutale, who wanted to know if UPND MPs were in order to continue going to the House when they did not recognise President Edgar Lungu as duly elected President.
“Order! Order on the left, I will reserve my ruling but as I do so, I want to provide guidance. Yesterday we spent a lot of time on this subject generally and we had numerous points of order. I want to assure the entire House that I will consider all those points of order that were raised yesterday and indeed all those issues related to the events of last Friday the 17th of March 2017. I will address them and I made that assurance yesterday and I expect that having spent so much time yesterday on that subject, today and on forwards, we need to focus on our core business. Rulings will be rendered, all the issues will be addressed, we need to move on, these issues have been deposited with me, I will attend to them, there’s no point in repeating these issues,” said Speaker Matibini.
“Yes it was a challenging issue, I acknowledge, but I will attend to it and yesterday I mentioned, give me space I am going to attend to it in accordance to the law and the rules of the House. I have more than sufficient material before me, it’s bound full, my plate is full, let me digest.”