UPND MPS INTIMIDATED

BY NOEL IYOMBWAOPPOSITION UPND members of Parliament were intimidated from voting for the constitutional amendment bill number 10 (Bill 10) and allegedly were sequestered away from parliament to make sure they missed the voting, Home Affairs minister, Stephen Kampyongo has said.Speaking in parliament, Mr Kampyongo said the MPs were ready to join the progressive change but were spirited away.He disclosed that some MPs were picked from Parliament motel and others from outside Parliament and taken for a party briefing.Mr Kampyongo said the PF had had the numbers to pass the bill but were sabotaged by the diversion of MPs until Parliament had voted on the bill with the vote falling short by 6 votes after 105 voted for.Meanwhile, government Chief Whip, Brian Mundubile has said UPND Members of Parliament did support bill 10 because the agenda of promoting homosexuality was excluded.Mr Mundubile said if the homosexual agenda was among the clauses in the bill, the opposition party would have vigorously supported it.The controversial Bill 10 yesterday fell off after Parliament failed to reach the threshold.Bill 10 needed about 111 votes to go through after it was presented for second recording in order to go to the next stage.The bill however only garnered 105 votes despite some UPND MPs and other opposition parliamentarians voting in favour of the proposed law.This means all progressive clauses such the mixed proportion, the delimitation exercise, the issue recognising all traditional leaders among others will no longer be actualised.Speaker of National Assembly Patrick yesterday told Parliament that the bill had fallen off because the votes did not reach the required threshold.And a PF official, Lemmy Bwalya said It was unfortunate that Zambians had been denied an opportunity to have a clean constitution because of the selfishness of the UPND.“I want to tell the UPND that, days are numbered and they will pay heavily for misrepresenting electorates who voted and expected fair representation. This is definitely not the wish of electorates but that of Hakainde Hichilema,” he said.Mr Bwalya said it was now time for the PF to focus on the 2021 elections and expose ‘shameless’ individuals who were taking advantage of electorates.He said the pposition UPND should not cry foul if the rejection of Bill 10 comes back to haunt them in the elections.