POLITICAL parties that don’t take part in general elections should be deregistered, says Party of National Unity and Progress (PNUP) president Highvie Hamududu.

In an interview, Saturday, Hamududu, the former UPND Bweengwa constituency member of parliament, said the goal of any political party should be to form government, and wondered how else that could be achieved without participation in elections.

“Political parties which don’t participate in elections should be deregistered. That is just wasting space!” he said.

Hamududu, who served in Parliament as budget committee chairman for seven years, said no wonder PNUP participated in the Chinyanja ward by-elections in 2017 just one month after being registered because of the understanding that a political party should ensure electoral participation.

“Of course we have participated in an election before and we came out number three in Chilanga in Chinyanja ward,” he said.

Hamududu wondered why people form political parties to make noise across the country but shy away from participating in elections.

He said registering a political party and not participate in elections was like registering a company and putting the certificate of registering under the pillow.

Hamududu claimed that it was the demand of the Zambian people for every political party to participate in elections.

“That is the reason why we are participating in the 2021 general elections,” he said.

And Hamududu has proposed the enactment of a law to prevent by-elections and safeguard finances for social sector support.

“I wish we can put something in the Constitution to see how a political party with a deceased parliamentarian or councillor just holds a primary and sends the name of the replacement,” he said.

Hamududu observed that there were a lot of learners in schools seating on the flour due to lack of desks, yet hefty sums of government money went towards financing by-elections.

“The amounts of money that have been spent on by-elections from 2001 to date are colossal. We could have even built a university in each province,” said Hamududu