POLITICAL analyst Alex Ngoma has advised the UPND government to consider engaging relevant stakeholders on how to deal with the Public Order Act in order to reach a consensus.

In an interview, Friday, Ngoma said there was need to reform the Public Order Act as it was seen to favour those in the ruling party.

“What we have noticed is that when parties are in the opposition, they don’t want the public order act. But when they get into the government, they would actually find that it works to their advantage, President Michael Sata said exactly that. So it is difficult to tell honestly what is likely to happen but the minimum is just to reform it. If it can’t be repealed then it has to be reformed. I can’t tell whether it will be repealed or not. That is not clear because I learnt from President Sata who said he hated it in the opposition but found it useful in office,” he said.

“UPND should invite all the stakeholders around the public order act so that they scrutinize it together and decide what needs to be done. I think that the decision made by the party in government alone would disadvantage the nation, but if there is consensus built around what should be done in terms of whether it has to be reformed or repealed, that I think is best done through a consensus. There is a need for consultation on how to deal with the public order act because once there is consensus around that issue, everybody will be happy.”

And Ngoma hoped there would be stability under the UPND leadership.

“I have hope that things will change (under UPND). You see, nations where stability reigns are those nations where there are partisan approaches to issues where there is consensus building around on very important issues. That way, in fact in the future if there is change of the government, the new government will find it easy to continue as opposed to changing things that were started by their predecessors. Seeing stability is our expectation under this new government,” said Ngoma.