In this audio, UPND president Hakainde Hichilema accuses United Nations Resident Coordinator Janet Rogan of helping the ruling Patriotic Front manipulate elections.

Last week, President Edgar Lungu shot down the Commonwealth-led dialogue process saying it was better for talks to be facilitated by the Zambia Centre for Inter Party Dialogue during a meeting with Rogan.

But addressing the press, Friday, Hichilema wondered why the Head of State was so comfortable discrediting International players to another international player.

He charged that Rogan had been helping the PF rig elections and accused her of pushing the agenda for ZCID to take over the dialogue process.

“Earlier, I touched on a matter that when Mr Lungu was talking about foreign power, he was hosting Janet Rogan. Janet Rogan is the UN representative in our country, what is UN? Is it not according to Lungu a foreign power? So how come he was hosting a member of the UN representing UN in this country and demeaning foreign powers when one of them was being hosted by him? Can you see the parallels there?” Hichilema asked.

“Our message is that we are aware of Janet Rogans maneuvers, we are very much aware. We have been very much aware for a long time of Janet Rogan’s maneuvers. Working with the electoral commission to manipulate voter registration, to manipulate ballot paper printing in Dubai, Janet Rogan was involved in that, we are aware. We are aware that Janet Rogan is fraternizing with ministers of the PF almost on a daily basis, weekly basis. We are aware that Janet is hosting the ZCID and encouraging the ZCID to say ‘you take the lead’ so that she can participate in the manipulation of the dialogue process as she participated in the manipulation of the elections in our country. Unlike PF, we did not start shouting at Rogan.”

He said he wanted to meet Rogan to discuss these issues.

“And deputy secretary general, I would like us, through you, to make an appointment, I want to meet Janet Rogan. I have been watching her, I have been monitoring her,” he said.

And Hichilema charged that Rogan had deliberately withheld a UN report which exposed the extent to which Zambia was divided and how institutions of governance were compromised.

“After the 2016 flawed elections, which everyone knows were flawed, which partially triggered the conflicts, in addition to what I highlighted in our country, soon after the 2016 election, Janet herself, Rogan herself and her organization the UN pitted a study with the ECZ called ‘The concrete structure of vulnerability assessment’, in short SVA, this study produced empirical evidence that Zambia was deeply divided and needed healing. In that report, she has not released the results even now because she doesn’t like the contents of that report because the contents are confirming that…the elections were not managed properly, I challenge her to release that report. We want that report released. That report also included a commentary on the inadequacy of institutions in Zambia to help manage conflict because most of the institutions have been compromised. Parliament is compromised, certain members of the Judiciary are compromised, those three members of the Constitutional Court who ruled against themselves over the weekend, this report recognizes the weaknesses of institutions and understands the need for us as a country to help build capacity in domestic institutions including, in my view, ZCID, so that in future they can manage conflicts like these. And that is why we need the support of the Commonwealth,” said Hichilema.

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