Opposition criticise police bias

As Zambia gears up for next year’s parliamentary and presidential elections, the role of the Zambian Police Service (ZPS) in enforcing the public order act has raised concerns among human rights bodies. The rights bodies argued that the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) had turned the service into a partisan political organ to suppress opposition parties in the country. According to Muleya Mwananyanda of Afronet, a human rights group, the Public Order Act - which gives police powers to prevent political gatherings - was being used to deny opposition parties the right to hold political gatherings. “The government uses the act as a tool to stifle opposition to the MMD and to undermine human rights,” Mwananyanda said. The MMD last week lost a parliamentary by-election in the Western province town of Sesheke on the border with Namibia. A candidate of the United Party for National Development (UPND) of former business executive Anderson Mazoka, won the seat despite the police denying the UPND permission to hold a campaign rally in the town before the poll. The act, according to media sources in Zambia, stipulates that political parties apply to the police to hold a meeting one week before the date of the gathering. “The police are loathe to granting permits to opposition parties to hold meetings,” a source said. “This stipulation, however, does not apply to the MMD.” The source added that this appeared to be MMD’s tactic of “stifling” democracy and intimidating the opposition. He said the MMD, before it became the government in 1991, had also launched a court action against Kenneth Kaunda’s government using the act to deny it the right to hold meetings. Meanwhile, media reports said British and German diplomats in Zambia had criticised the police refusal to grant permits for opposition party gatherings. A German embassy official said: “Germany is in favour of democracy. We value multiparty politics which can only thrive if parties operate freely.” A British high commission official said British officials had held frequent talks with President Frederick Chiluba’s government on the need to accord opposition parties a level playing field in the electoral process.