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Leader of the opposition in parliament, Brian Mundubile, has said Zambia should cancel upcoming democracy summit claiming that there are various human rights abuses.
The United States of America (USA), starting from March 29-30, 2023 , will co-host the second Summit for Democracy with Costa Rica, Netherlands, Korea, and Zambia.
But Mundubile said the summit should be reconsidered due to incidences of human rights breaches recently witnessed.
One of the Patriotic Front ( PF) presidential candidates, said in a statement on Monday that money for the summit should have been channeled towards addressing the exchange rate which is at K20 to a dollar, high cost of fuel at K29, ZESCO connection fees from K750 to K14,000 and insufficient medicine in hospitals.
Other challenges highlighted by him included rising cost of fertilizer, bus fares and mealie meal.
He also referenced the case of 22 peaceful protesters that were recently arrested for airing their views on national issues.
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Mundubile further alleged that journalists had recently been detained on duty for doing their work and former President Edgar Lungu threatened with arrest for worshipping God.
He argued that such incidents were not expected in a constitutional democracy.
“We are a constitutional democracy and like all said by one eminent writer ‘The Greatness of any Nation lies in the fidelity to the Constitution’. What we are seeing today is a violation of the constitution in many aspects,” he said.
Mundubile said the country had seen a shrinking media and civic space under United Party for National Development (UPND).
Mundubile further claimed that what the UPND administration would present has many infringements, looking at some examples of violation of human rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.
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