News Update: Mugabe at Independence Day Stadium Ceremony
President Robert Mugabe is in Zambia today to attending the inauguration of president elect,Edgar Lungu, of Patriotic Front(PF).
Lungu is set to lead his country for the next five years after narrowly winning a bitterly contested election against rival Hakaiende Hichilema who has been fighting a losing war to get the votes nullified via courts.
The inauguration will be a low key event with less than 5 heads of states expected.
The irony of the ceremony is that it will largely be graced by vice presidents and some leaders who have been in power through contentious processes including Yuweri Museveni of Uganda and Mugabe of Zimbabwe’s Zanu PF.
A human rights lawyer based in Lusaka who spoke on condition of anonymity told reporters that ‘no decent and self-respecting leader will attend a ceremony to celebrate rigged elections’ in a country now affected by tribal animosity like other troubled regions of our continent.
Meanwhile, a Lusaka High Court blocked an urgent application by the opposition party to have the ceremony cancelled.
The United Party for National Development (UPND) leader Hakainde Hichilema had petitioned the court to overturn a Constitutional Court decision not to give him more time to legally challenge Lungu’s re-election.
