Civil Society Warns UPND Against Third-Term Agenda For Hichilema

Civil rights activist Brebner Changala and governance campaigner Mulenga Kapwepwe have separately warned the United Party for National Development (UPND) government against entertaining any third-term agenda for President Hakainde Hichilema, saying Zambians will not tolerate…

Civil rights activist Brebner Changala and governance campaigner Mulenga Kapwepwe have separately warned the United Party for National Development (UPND) government against entertaining any third-term agenda for President Hakainde Hichilema, saying Zambians will not tolerate it. Both were commenting on increasing calls by UPND members for the Constitution to be amended to give the Head of State a third term of office, or to remove the presidential term limit altogether.

Changala said Zambians would not accept the extension of the constitutional term limit, despite what he called their perceived collective docility. “If there’s something Zambians will not tolerate even in their collective docility, it is a third term. I wish to tell those calling for that to think twice before they create problems for the nation and themselves,” he said.

He warned the ruling party not to be deceived by the public’s wait-and-see reaction to the scheme, and urged citizens not to allow the Constitution to be changed to favour an individual, calling any such move catastrophic for the country’s future.

Changala pointed to the outcome of the last general election as proof that many Zambians did not want the UPND in office, noting that millions of citizens had rallied behind the opposition National Reconciliation Party for Unity and Prosperity (NRPUP) only weeks after it emerged. He said any attempt to abolish the presidential term limit would be met with immediate backlash from Zambians that the Government might struggle to manage.

“The UPND should not take Zambians’ silence after the disputed August 13 general elections for granted,” Changala said.

He said the nation was still groaning from post-election trauma, during which the military was deployed to intimidate citizens and interfere with the management of the electoral process.

“I want to warn this administration that Zambians hate oppression and like their peace. They may not receive this machination with kindness, and that is when the giant will wake up from the slumber,” Changala said.

He added that the ruling party should not assume its numbers in Parliament gave it a free hand. “Let them not believe that they have control over Parliament and can do as they wish. Let them stop it. We now need to be talking about how to reform the compromised Electoral Commission of Zambia, police, Judiciary and the entire civil service,” Changala said.

In a separate interview, Kapwepwe said any change to the Constitution would serve an individual rather than the country, and that the Constitution was a serious document that could only be changed on the basis of facts. She questioned the rush to amend it when the nation still needed to heal from its post-election crisis.

“What is wrong with the Constitution for people to start pushing a narrative that the Constitution should be changed to allow the current Head of State, Hakainde Hichilema, to continue even after his two terms elapse?” she wondered.

“I was part of the constitution-making team, and what I learned from there was that people should not change the Constitution to favour an individual or a group of people but the country at large,” she said.

Kapwepwe dismissed remarks by nominated Member of Parliament Florence Chileshe, who had suggested Mr Hichilema must continue beyond 2031 because women in Zambia do not want democracy but development, which she framed as a personal matter. Kapwepwe said it was clear some people were testing the waters to push an agenda aimed at scrapping the third-term limit.

“It is wrong for Chileshe to say women did not want democracy just because she is in cahoots with the current regime. Chileshe should not say all of us women do not want democracy when some of us have divergent views and would want to defend the Constitution,” she said.

Other prominent UPND members have in recent days called for the removal of the two-term limit to give Mr Hichilema a third term, or for the term limit to be scrapped entirely so he could remain in office for as long as the party wished. Those calls have attracted public backlash.