PRESS STATEMENT
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2015.
SUBJECT: ABZ PULLS OUT OF THE GRAND COALITION FOR A PEOPLE DRIVEN CONSTITUTION
We regret to inform our members and the general public that ABZ shall no longer be part of the Grand Coalition that has been pushing for a people driven constitution.
Our decision has been necessitated by a conspiracy by some members of the Grand Coalition to expel our leader Fr. Frank Bwalya from the Coalition for supporting His Excellency Edgar Chagwa Lungu as presidential candidate for the Patriotic Front (PF) in the January 20, 2015 presidential election.
On Thursday 12th February 2015 (yesterday) during a meeting for the Grand Coalition held at Protea Hotel at Arcades in Lusaka to which Fr Bwalya was invited some members of the Grand Coalition tried to embarrass our leader by demanding for his ejection from the meeting on grounds that he was close to President Edgar Lungu and therefore was not welcome in the Grand Coalition. This prompted a number of members of the Grand Coalition to defend our leader for his democratic choice to support Mr. Lungu and the PF. These members wondered why Fr Bwalya was singled out when there were other political parties who are members of the Grand Coalition that supported Mr. Lungu and campaigned for him.
In responding to the clearly undemocratic and unconstitutional attempt to eject him from the meeting Fr. Bwalya made it clear that he had done nothing to undermine the work of the Grand Coalition in demanding for a people driven constitution. He drew the attention of the members to the press statement that was issued when ABZ decided to endorse the candidature of Mr. Lungu long before PF adopted him as presidential candidate. He said the statement was very clear about the need for the PF to deliver a people driven constitution as promised. Fr. Bwalya also said in the radio programmes he did as part of campaigning for the PF presidential candidate he always talked about the need for PF to deliver a people driven constitution. He took great exception to the conspiracy by some members of the Grand Coalition to violate or threaten his freedoms of expression and association and walked out of the meeting. Since the decision to support Mr. Lungu was made by our National Executive Team which is the decision making body in between Party Conventions, those of us who accompanied President Frank Bwalya walked out with him.
As a party we are very disappointed at the attempt by some members of the Grand Coalition to malign and embarrass our Party President for implementing a decision of our party to support Mr. Lungu. We believe that the Grand Coalition should promote tenets of democracy and constitutionalism. Therefore, it should not allow anybody to use its platform to advance an agenda contrary to the same values that the Grand Coalition wants to see in a good and people driven constitution.
Finally, we want to make it clear that our party will continue to constructively engage the PF government on the need for a good people driven constitution and that we shall continue our relationship with President Lungu and his government for the common good. We believe that Mr Lungu has done very well so far in introducing politics of development in Zambia as opposed to politics of hate, antagonism and tribalism.
As such, our leader Fr. Frank Bwalya has the blessings of our party as he supports the PF administration under the able leadership of His Excellency Edgar Chagwa Lungu. We shall not allow anyone to force us to endorse their preferred candidate just because he or she signed a social contract promising to satisfy the demands of the Grand Coalition.
Mulenga Shula (Ms)
ABZ SECRETARY GENERAL