By MAIMBO MWEEMBA
The Christian Coalition in Zambia has called on all Zambian voters to ignore the Amnesty International’s claims that the Patriotic Front’s government is ruling the country in fear and repression.
The Coalition’s president Charles Mwape says that the report by Amnesty International is meant to de-campaign the ruling PF and it is politically engineered and misleading.
Professor Mwape said Zambia has remained a beacon of peace and democracy on the African continent.
“Zambia has remained the mother of democracy under President Lungu, it is for the first time that the country has seen political adverts on the national broadcaster which are not of the ruling party been aired, a country ruled under repression cannot give space to opposition political parties to campaign freely,” he said.
Professor Mwape alleges that the statement from the Amnesty International on the country’s election atmosphere was planted by a named opposition political party to misrepresent the country internationally.
“The Amnesty’s report should be dismissed with the contempt it deserves , as it is mischievous, it is clear that the report was planted to misrepresent what is happening in the country in terms of democracy and the campaign atmosphere,” he said.
Professor Mwape said that the timing of the report is pure political and must not be taken seriously as Zambians are campaigning freely.
He says the coalition has been following the happenings in the country and all the political parties are freely selling their campaign messages to the Zambian electorates.
“We further ask the PF and President Lungu to ignore the report and focus on their campaigns and delivering developmental projects across the country, as a coalition we have strongly condemned the report and deemed it as a political statement,” he said.
