UPND Spokesperson Charles Kakoma says concerns raised by the Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops should not be ignored because it is accurate.

In a statement yesterday, Kakoma said President Edgar Lungu was an oppressive a leader.

“The Catholic Bishops’ conclusion that Zambia is a dictatorship or is heading to a dictatorship should be taken seriously by both the local and international community. The concerns raised by the Bishops are real and shouldn’t be downplayed. We appreciate that the Clergy have been able to see what we have witnessed for a very long time; the tyranny,” Kakoma stated.

“It’s very important that all concerned parties heed to this advice and put in place correctional measures to remedy the current tense political atmosphere in the country which is an indictment of how oppressive and dictatorial Edgar Lungu has been since the 2016 presidential and general elections.”

Kakoma also stated that the Police Service had become partisan and brutal.

“The gross misconduct and unprofessionalism exhibited by the police cannot go unmentioned. They have been partisan and severely brutal in their approach. There are documented cases where the police have killed and brutalised our members under the directive of the PF. The UPND isn’t allowed to have meetings with their membership despite following all the laid down procedures. On the other hand the PF can have a rally any time they feel like without any form of hindrance,” Kakoma stated.

“The misapplication of the Public Order Act is another example of how the police have been abusive.”

He noted that the country could not have been experiencing violence and other atrocities had all political parties been satisfied with the outcome of the elections.

Kakoma stated that time to fix things had come.

“We need to start from the bottom and fix strategic governance institutions. If the Electoral Commission of Zambia was efficient, transparent and professional we wouldn’t have been where we are today. In France it only took them two hours to count 20 million votes, it took over a week to count less than 6 million votes in Zambia,” he stated.

“The Judiciary has been a disaster and has failed to live up to the expectations of the Zambian people. The failure to effectively adjudicate over the presidential petition was the genesis of this political problem that we are currently facing. The Constitutional court failed to conclusively deal with the petition. To this day, no judgment shows who won that petition as no one was declared the winner by the Constitutional Court.”