Zambian Democracy in grave danger- HH
Opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) leader Hakainde Hichilema says democracy in Zambia is in grave danger.
In an interview with Stephen Sackur on BBC Hardtalk world service on Tuesday, Hichilema said the democratic space had shrunk in Zambia and that there was need to take remedial measures to address the situation.
“It is time to fix the broken pieces, the broken pieces of the democratic process in the country. We need to clean up our democratic credentials,” he said.
When asked whether he thought democracy was in grave danger in the country, Hichilema responded in affirmative, “it’s in grave danger.”
He said his incarceration together with five of his aides for three months in prison on trumped charges of treason was degrading and dehumanising.
“The manner I was arrested was unacceptable…….. the house was swamped by over 300 police officers,” Hichilema explained. “We are not broken because we expected the government to do things like that but we have emerged stronger, 10 times stronger.”
He reiterated that his constitutional right of disputing the elections should be respected saying every citizen had a right to be head while the courts of law had a duty to hear disputed matters such as the 2016 presidential elections.
Asked whether he would contest the 2021 presidential following his 5th unsuccessful attempt in the 2016 elections, Hichilema said he was free to participate like any other eligible Zambian but that the electoral process needed to be resolved.
“Whether I am going to run again is not the point, the point is we are concerned about the process under which these elections are held, anyone is free to run including myself,” he said
He further said that the arrest should never have happened in the first place and alleged that accusations and trumped up charges against his supporters were the order of the day in Zambia.
On eligibility of President Edgar Lungu to contest the presidency in 2021, the UPND leader said that the country should wait for the outcome of a court interpretation of the provisions of the constitution on the matter.
Sackur pressed Hichilema to substantiate his claims that President Lungu wanted to kill him moments before his arrest and detention.
The BBC Presenter reminded his guest that if President Lungu wanted to kill him, he would have easily done that.
And in response Hichilema cited his brutal arrest and eight-day solitary confinement in what he called degrading and inhuman conditions as reasons to believe that President Lungu’s administration was determined to take his life.
