United Party for National Development (UPND) secretary general Stephen Katuka says the UN should recall its representative in Zambia, Janet Rogan as soon as it proven that she participated in the rigging of the 2016 elections.

And Katuka has advised the PF not be overconfident about the upcoming by-elections in 16 wards across the country, saying each political party would only scoop so much because all parties have got their own strongholds.

Commenting on PeP president Sean Tembo’s call for the UN to recall Rogan on allegations of breaching the regulations of international diplomacy, Katuka told News Diggers that there was nothing special about Rogan that should restrain the UN from replacing her.

“A stakeholder (Sean Tembo) has come up with an observation that instead of Janet Rogan being employed in these local politics and accusations here and there, let the UN just recall her and send a different diplomat in her place. Look at what happened to the Cuban Ambassador, the Cuban Ambassador just stayed in this country for one minute and then the next minute he was gone. What is so special about Rogan or whatever you call her that she shouldn’t be disciplined when she makes mistakes? She is also just a diplomat here like anyone else. So if it’s proven that she got involved into partisan or local politics, or the rigging of elections in 2016, she must also be withdrawn and replaced with another one who is more credible and is capable of observing the rules and regulations of international diplomacy,” katuka said.

He said it was illogical for PF secretary general Davies Mwila to force the UPND to move on from the 2016 elections.

“It is foolish for anyone to ask you to forget about today and think you will move on tomorrow, because your future depends on the past. It is important to ensure that you correct what happened in the past in order for you to have a fair playing field. So there is no way we are talking from without as [Davies] Mwila puts it. He can’t tell us to just forget about what happened and just move on like that, we have got evidence to present. And you as the media should now investigate also, you must investigate the issues that the president (Hakainde Hichilema) raised at a press briefing [last week]. That Rogan was mentioned at president Hichilema’s briefing, and that’s where everything is coming from for us as UPND,” he insisted.

Meanwhile, Katuka advised the PF and Davies Mwila in particular to quit being over confident about emerging victorious in all the seats of the upcoming by-elections.

“It is not possible for them to win all the 16 seats, what much have they done to win in all the 16 wards? There has never been a time when we’ve had elections and the PF won all of them, never! There are areas in this election where the PF is going to win and some areas where we are going to win. That has been the trend all along. Normally what happens in an election is that everyone has got some places where they are most popular and get to receive a lot of votes, so there is no way they can say ‘we will win all of the seats’, that’s not possible,” said Katuka.

“You can just lose some and win some. So from what we are receiving in our engagements with the people, I think that the ground is fertile and we are optimistic that we will scoop many seats. But we are not talking like the PF who are saying they will win everything, but we are saying we will win some and lose some, it’s normal. You can’t be over ambitious to say you will get everything, what have you done that can make you win everything? What magic have you done? The PF is becoming unpopular by the day.”