DON’T STIFLE OPPOSITION PARTIES, CRIES MILUPI

By KETRA KALUNGATHE prevailing political atmosphere in the country is suffocating the opposition making them fail to mobilise supporters ahead of next year’s general elections, says Alliance for Development and Democracy (ADD) president, Charles Milupi.Mr Milupi said the opposition needed sufficient political space, which only the Patriotic Front (PF) was enjoying.He said in an interview that democracy was shrinking because it was not being applied equally.Mr Milupi said Zambia is a multi-party democracy as enshrined in the constitution, the supreme law of the land which should be obeyed at all times.He said equal political space was needed for all political parties especially those in opposition to thrive and mobilise ahead of the 2021 general elections“The country has moved to a very difficult situation for no reason. When MMD was ruling, parties were able to mobilise that is how parties like UPND and PF were formed, they could campaign throughout, there was proper democracy,” Mr Milupi said.He advised Government not to misapply the rule of law because when that happens, there would be political instability.Mr Milupi said genuine democracy should be able to bring stability in the nation and therefore, it should be upheld especially in a multi-party democratic country like Zambia.“Obey the constitution, It says Zambia is a multi-party democracy, when you misapply democracy a lot of other things suffer, equal application of democracy is what Zambia needs today,” he said.