Church urges wrangling political parties to put their houses in order

We, the church leaders of the Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ)member churches meeting in Lusaka on the 4^THof December, 2014 would like to make the following observations with regards to the current political scenario in the country.

1. POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT

CCZ is very disturbed and worried by the political instability, misunderstandings and reported violence in some political parties.

We have observed that the in-fighting in the Patriotic Front (PF) and the Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) and the United National Independence Party (UNIP)has the potential to cause instability in the country if left unchecked. The confusion, instead of being amicably resolved via observation of their constitutions, the conflict has intensified andis escalating to dangerous proportions. This is affecting all Zambians and would be investors. It is creating a very unhealthy transition process towards electing a new President for our nation. The behaviour of some political leaders does not give Zambians confidence that they qualify to be national leaders.

We believe that PF as a party in power has a great responsibility to ensure peace and security in the nation by means ofembracing the principle of unity of purpose by putting individual differences aside and concentrate on their mandate to lead the country through this transition to the election day.

The ruling party must realise that the continued in-fighting is a cost to the country’sdevelopment as the entire PF leadership which comprises of senior government officials are spending most of their time fuelling conflict in order to grab leadership at all costs. Since the President died, the ministers have abandoned and neglected their national duties to join in the confusion. This is indeed retrogressive and uncalled for.

The church is ready to play the role of mediator when called upon by any political party to resolve differences and we will continue to pray that unity shall prevail amongst all political players for the sake of our country moving forward. Bloodshed should be avoided. Any blood spilled for expediency shall be on all politicians’ hands.

2. FORTH-COMING PRESIDENTAL ELECTIONS

The church is committed to ensuring that the process of ushering in the country’s new leader is done in accordance with the laws that govern the country as a democratic state. It is for this reason that the three church mother bodies and other faith based organisations namely the Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ), the Evangelical Fellowship in Zambia (EFZ), the Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC), Caritas Zambia and the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) have formed a coalition called the CHRISTIAN CHURCHES MONITORING GROUP (CCMG), to ensure transparency, accountability and credibility of the election process.

The coalition’s aim is to monitor the forth-coming presidential elections of 20^th January 2015 and the entire electoral process leading to the elections, focusing mainly on the management of election results.To this effect, the coalition called CCMG will come up with a Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) exercise to be used as a tool for monitoring the integrity of the election results during and after the counting process of votes, with the participation of well-trained election monitors.

This effort can only bear fruit in an environment of peace and unity. It is therefore our hope that politicians will quickly listen to the voice of reason and put to rest personal interests, narrow interests and embrace the power of harmony in respect for all the people in the nation.

We will continue to pray for our country Zambia and the transition process leading to the elections. A peaceful transition is what will make us emerge stronger and better as a nation.

May the Lord continue to bless Zambia.