LUSAKA Lawyer Kelvin Bwalya Fube (KBF) says if President Edgar Lungu insists on standing in 2021, “we will share votes”.

And Fube says President Lungu is tired and needs to rest so that people with new ideas can serve the country.

Meanwhile, Fube has insisted that President Lungu is not eligible to contest the 2021 elections.

Speaking on United Voice Radio, Wednesday, Fube said if President Lungu refused to step aside, they would share vote.

“Don’t listen to these vuvuzelas who come here and tell you kokolo kokolo kokolo (gibberish), half of those people are not respected. That’s why I want to meet the President, tell him what going on on the ground. Tell him what the real issues are. He shouldn’t be lied to. These are the same people who are pushing the President to stand. These are the same people who are lying to the President. They want the President to be embarrassed eventually, for what? We don’t need to lose power but if we are to lose power, tukaakana ama [we will share the] votes. The others won’t share votes they will remain intact but the President and I will share,” Fube said.

Fube said people should not underrate his support base.

“What I want to do is talk to my President. He is a lawyer like me. We should engage. It’s not more than a year [that a suspension] letter was served in June this year. They purported to have expelled me in 2019, the letter was served one year later. I have not met my President. I want to meet him, yes and I am still making attempts to meet him. I want to hear it from him one on one, man, to man. If he doesn’t want to meet me, so be it. I know the power of the President in the Patriotic Front. So, what he can do and what he cannot do, I know according to the Constitution. I cannot meet any other member. I have not committed any offence in the Patriotic Front. If having an ambition is an offence, read the constitution of the party and show me which clause says that,” he said.

“One of the rights is that I can vie for any position in the party, and I can criticise the party. What I have asked the President and I will repeat, I don’t want to challenge President Lungu. I want ba (the) President uku selako (to step aside). Let me face anyone else, not him. [If he doesn’t move out], fine I will respect his decision then you will hear from me. Pa kwakana ubunga takuba insoni (you don’t feel shy when sharing mealie meal), up to that point, he [President Lungu] becomes an adversary. But right now, he is my President, my hands are folded, I don’t want to fight him. Elo nga twa landa ati tuonaule PF ba Sata bakalapilibuka (If we are to destroy the PF, Sata will be turning in his grave), because if we are going to be splitting the votes, don’t underestimate me, and don’t think I don’t have support in the party, tukaakana (we will share votes). Ama politics it’s about strategy. Tatucita discuss stategy pa radio (we don’t discuss strategy on radio).”

And Fube said President Lungu needed rest.

“The problem is that most of the people with the President do not have a plan B. So when the plan they have dies, they don’t know what to do. You will not see a Minister today or a government official talking about something without referring to Bill 10. Bill 10 is dead, move on, get over it. Why are you crying over spelt milk? Once the Speaker says the ruling of the House and the results are the following, that’s it. I trust in the wisdom of Chagwa. He is being pushed left right and centre and I know there are some people, in fact, trying to push him into a corner come on. ‘Ba President naba bomba’, ba president na banaka! Lekeni baye batushe (Some people are saying ‘the President has worked’, [but] the President is tired. Let him go and rest) Why are we pushing [to stand]? Te ku America kuno (this is not America), the issue of life expectancy should also be taken into account,” he said.

“We cannot be having old President, no. When are the youths going to be leaders? I will say this to the Zambians and I will say it clear and loud. I am running for President. I am a member of the Patriotic Front. [Expelled] according to who? The Patriotic Front today has no central committee to expel me. The only organ in the Patriotic Front that can expel a member is the central committee. It doesn’t exist. The central committee last held election in 2011 naba (with) Sata. Their mandate came to an end in 2016. How can they have a mandate today. How? They have no jurisdiction. What is the quorum for the central committee? Half of the membership. How many of those members from 2011 exist in this central committee? Four. Is that a quorum? Out of 30? I will not legitimise it. Why should I legitimise it?”

Meanwhile, Fube insisted that President Lungu was not eligible to stand in 2021.

“I will repeat, my older brother the President of Republic of Zambia Edgar Chagwa Lungu has been sworn in twice. He went through two elections, picked up a Bible, was sworn if first time after the elections in 2015 as a President. He was sworn in the second time after the August 2016 general elections. That’s it. The definition of the term has come now and let me make a statement because the law is anchored on principles. One of the cardinal principles of law is that the law does not operate retroactively. It doesn’t go backwards. You cannot run away from that principle of law. The Constitution that the President signed on the 5th of January 2016, that amendment to the 1996 constitution, came into force on the 5th of January,” said KBF.

“So, you interpret that Constitution to make it apply to the previous Constitution is wrong. It’s a legal principle. The law does not operate retroactively. When the President was sworn in after the 20th of January 2015, that election, it was not under this new constitution. It was not. So, you cannot marry the two, that law existed on its own. It stood on its own. And the rules under that law were very different. That is why ba [Rupiah] Bwezani when he became President in 2008 after the death of Levy Mwanawasa, when the time to dissolve Parliament came, he dissolved Parliament thereby dissolving himself although he only served three years in office. Why didn’t he say ‘ine elo naisa’ (I have just come in), I haven’t served a full term, I will be here but I will dissolve parliament. It can’t work. Even for Edgar Chagwa Lungu in 2016, having served one year and some months when time came to dissolve parliament, he dissolved parliament and dissolved himself.”