President Edgar Lungu. FILE PHOTO | PHILIPPE WOJAZER | AFP
Zambian President Edgar Lungu on Thursday justified imposing a
state of emergency by alleging that opposition parties were behind a
string of arson attacks intended "to create terror and panic".
Lungu
denied he was establishing a dictatorship in Zambia — until recently a
relatively stable country — and said his political rivals were trying to
overturn last year's election results.
Several fires,
including one that burnt down the main market in the capital Lusaka on
Tuesday, have been at the centre of rising political tensions in Zambia.
The
state of emergency — which increases police powers of detention and
arrest — is "to curb lawlessness", Lungu told a press conference at his
State House residence.
"The theory (by opposition
parties) is that they put pressure so that we begin renegotiating the
result of the last elections," he said.
"There is a
deliberate ploy by the opposition... We won the elections and the winner
takes it all. Their idea was to create terror and panic."
Last year's election was marked by clashes between rival
supporters, with opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema remaining in
detention on treason charges.
Hichilema was arrested in April after his convoy allegedly refused to give way to the presidential motorcade.
'Sad day for the country'
The
president, who announced the state of emergency in a televised address
late Wednesday, dismissed accusations of growing authoritarianism.
"Zambia
is the most accomplished democracy in this region or the whole Africa.
If this is dictatorship, then there is no democracy in Africa," he said.
"I
know that people think I am targeting political players, I am not
targeting any political player. I am only trying to bring sanity," he
added.
The UPND has yet to react to the president's
move, but the smaller MMD opposition party said Lungu should have
allowed investigators to probe the cause of the market fire.
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