MPs petition speaker to impeach Chiluba

Zambian parliamentarians have filed a motion to impeach President Frederick Chiluba in the wake of his unconstitutional bid to run for a third term, AP reported on Friday, quoting a parliamentary statement. The impeachment notice was filed by former local government minister, Ackson Sejani, who was recently sacked from Chiluba’s cabinet for opposing the president’s bid. So far, a third of parliamentarians, 65 out of 158, have signed the petition filed on Thursday to the speaker of the national assembly.

The petition calls for Chiluba to be impeached on seven offences of “gross violation” of the constitution. The notice accused the president of bribing ruling party members into supporting his attempts to hang onto power. “The president has grossly misconducted himself by failing to perform with dignity and leadership the functions of president in that he has initiated and orchestrated the third term debate through bribes applied to the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) members as well as other citizens for selfish rather than national interest,” the notice said.

Other offences levelled against Chiluba included tapping of telephone lines, diverting state funds to finance the ruling party convention and interfering with the privatisation process of Zambia’s copper mines. Chiluba would address the nation on Friday evening following the controversial party vote to allow him to seek an unconstitutional third term, Zambia Information Services said in a statement.