Political Parties outside Parliament don’t deserve funding, says Steven Katuka.

In justifying why political parties without Parliamentary representation should not be given funding, Katuka who is United Party for National Development(UPND) Secretary General said many political parties without clear ideologies may emerge to take part in sharing the cake and that would be a recipe for anarchy.

Patriots for Economic Progress(PeP) leader Sean Enock Tembo said the Patriotic Front(PF) and UPND have financial muscle, enough to carry out  smooth campaigns, therefore they need no funding from Government.

He said if funding is given to small political parties, there will be full enjoyment of democracy in the country.

But Katuka said funding should not be wasted on political parties that do not add value to the political dispensation of the country.

The UPND Chief Executive Officer(CEO) said real checks and balances are done in parliament where laws are made and not in the press.

He said with the indiscriminate poverty Zambians have been subjected  to by the PF, there would  be mushrooming of political parties with vague or copy and paste objectives.

” We are the only political party that has been in opposition for 20 years and  participated in all the elections in the history of Zambia. We have survived in opposition without funding from outside the country. We fund ourselves, as members,” Katuka said.

He added: ” I was at that National Constitution Conference (NCC) where it was agreed that only political parties with representation will be getting funding. I was there. If they start funding political parties without representation, it will be a recipe for anarchy. You Mr Reporter and my sister here would want to form a political party and expecting to be funded.”

He said if there was a way, political parties that stay for over 10 years without a Councilor or Member of Parliament should be deregistered to allow only serious parties to compete.

Katuka wondered how much the country would spend, funding all the  political parties, saying currently there are over 40 political parties registered but less than ten are active.

“We run an office here and we go out in the field to campaign but some of our friends have never participated in any election. They don’t have a ward or a constituency,” Katuka said.