UPND Vice president Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba says President Edgar Lungu is rambling and will continue to do so because he knows that his term of office is about to expire.

And Mwamba who is popularly known as GBM charged that President Lungu is using the constitution to create a one-party state, which the UPND will not accept.

GBM was reacting to President Lungu’s statement that peaceful campaign in Kasenengwa were a demonstration that the UPND was a violent party, and that banning it from taking part in future elections would be one way of uniting the country.

“We wish to condemn in the strongest possible terms the unwarranted attack and the unending contempt and disdain against multi partyism in Zambia that Mr Edgar Lungu and his PF party are exhibiting and championing, using public resources and executive privileges. In his address at a rally in Kasenengwa, Mr Lungu expressed his desire to ban the UPND from all future elections because he believes that’s the only way true democracy will be achieved in Zambia. Not too long-ago Mr Lungu expressed his outrage that President Hakainde Hichilema was the President of Zambia’s biggest opposition party and urged the UPND members to oust him. This man’s hate and bitterness for political opponents is beyond the pale, it is out of this world and is, as a matter of fact, disgraceful and an embarrassment to this country,” he said.

“’Walasabaila Edgar taulati’ Edgar’s statement also revealed his intentions of wanting UPND banned knowing too well that it is forming government, his reasoning on violence does not make sense at all. Deep in his heart he is celebrating because he has no competition in Kasenengwa, UPND is not there and he has no pressure of sending cadres to Kasenengwa, as has been the case in other by- elections like Shiwangandu where my entourage was attacked. Violence is a tool Edgar and PF are using to intimidate voters. This is a true manifestation of hate and dangerous path which Lungu wants to take our country to, and Zambians will not allow it.”

He said President Lungu has been creating and encouraging tribalism in his campaign messages instead of addressing serious issues affecting Zambians.

“It is so embarrassing that someone calling himself President can stand in front of stressed farmers and hungry citizens and preach hate instead of informing them the solution he has for the farmers knowing too well that the same people call him and his party ‘Paya Farmer’. I advise Edgar to address issues affecting people in Kasenengwa instead of talking about UPND which is not there. We know Edgar has nothing to say because his failure to govern is seen from poverty, hunger, unemployment and the huge debt. Zambia will hold him responsible should this hate spread across the country. In the 1990s, our people took to the streets and rejected UNIP’s one party dictatorship because they abhorred a system which perpetually controlled and monopolised their rights and stifled their freedoms and civil liberties against shared values and common sense,” said GBM.

“Instead of being the custodian of the constitution, the latter is in his custody, instead of promoting it’s sacredness, he desecrates it with impunity, instead of upholding it he holds it hostage. The UPND and all citizens of good will wish to send a categorical and resounding message to Mr Lungu. We shall not be bullied neither shall we succumb to his will to surrender the hard-won democracy to the fantasy and whims of his wild dreams of one party dictatorship. It will not happen now, and it will not happen in future. I call upon the Church and the country to pray for Edgar Lungu whose heart is filled with hate so that for once he treats all as brothers and sisters with the love they deserve.”