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Zambia extends state of emergency by 3 months

Wednesday July 12 2017
lungu

Zambia's President Edgar Lungu. PHOTO | PHILIPPE WOJAZER | AFP

By MICHAEL CHAWE

Zambia's parliament has voted to extend the state of emergency by three months.

“Parliament has unanimously approved the extension of President Edgar Lungu’s declaration of a state of 'threatened public emergency in the country',” reported state radio late Tuesday.

President Lungu decreed the emergency last week to deal with "acts of sabotage" by his political opponents, after fire gutted the country's biggest market in the capital Lusaka. But critics see it as an effort to tighten his grip on power.

READ: Zambia president blames rivals for state of emergency

ALSO READ: Zambian President Edgar Lungu invokes state of emergency

The Zambian legislators on Tuesday voted to extend the state of emergency by another 90 days, to give law enforcement agencies "enhanced measures" to curb "rising cases of politically motivated fires and vandalism of vital electricity supply lines".

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About 48 MPs from the main opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) were absent after being suspended for a month by the Speaker following their boycott of an address by President Lungu in March.

Other opposition lawmakers boycotted the vote Tuesday by vacating the chamber, leaving only the 85 members of the president's majority party to pass the measure.

“The government will then re-assess [after three months] whether the threat to public security has been addressed," President Lungu’s spokesperson Amos Chanda said in a statement Tuesday.

“The measures, to be enforced through special regulations under the preservation of public Security Act, were deemed necessary to restore public order and to prevent a state of public emergency from arising.”

Political tensions have been high since the detention in April on treason charges of the country’s largest opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema of UPND.

Mr Hichilema narrowly lost to President Edgar Lungu in the 2016 election, which the opposition alleges was stolen.

The government has insisted that civil liberties such as free movement had not been suspended and businesses would be allowed to operate as normal.

Home Affairs minister Stephen Kampyongo said Tuesday that the government would soon arrest the perpetrators of the fires.

"It's time for boots, for our men to be on the ground. We are going to put this to a halt. If it will take us lives to have this peace, so be it," he said.

Church leaders, among others, have expressed worries that the country was turning into a dictatorship.

Three church bodies, in a strongly-worded statement, called for the release of Mr Hichilema.

-Additional reporting by AFP.

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