Tongas oppose third term bid

The Tonga Traditional Association (TTA) has declared Zambia's Southern Province a no-go area for ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) MPs supporting President Frederick Chiluba's third term bid, news reports said. TTA national adviser Dickson Namanza said those attending an upcoming Southern Province MMD conference had no powers to go against the declaration made by the province's 36 chiefs who recently rejected Chiluba's third term bid.

"We are in total support of the resolutions passed by the chiefs that the Constitution should not be changed and we do not expect the MPs to make different resolutions because the chiefs are more important than them," Namanza said. "All Tonga speaking people and our cousins should support in total the resolutions of the chiefs to defend the Zambian Constitution." Zambia's current constitution allows only for two presidential terms. Chiluba's final term end at the end of this year.