THE three church mother bodies are being used to lay ground work for regime change in 2021, four opposition political parties have charged.

The four parties: Rainbow, FDD, MMD and United Liberal Party (ULP) told a press briefing in Lusaka yesterday that the purpoted launch of the national dialogue on January 18 was nothing but a ploy to promote the image of UPND.

FDD president Edith Nawakwi, MMD president Felix Mutati, ULP president Sakwiba Sikota and Rainbow secretary general Wynter Kabimba said they would not participate in the dialogue if the three church mother bodies disregarded the agreed upon agenda as the basis for the talks.

FDD president Edith Nawakwi said the three church mother bodies were hypocritical because it was just championing the agenda of the UPND.

The three church mother bodies want to only address issues that were being raised by the UPND which was against the main agenda agreed upon by the political party presidents, she said.

“The truth of the matter is that the purported launch on January 18, 2019, was an attempt to promote the image of one political party namely the United Party for National Development.

“The rest of us were to be used as tokens to promote that agenda, and hence the reference to us as surrogates of Patriotic Front,” Ms Nawakwi said.

It was clear to see and understand that the national dialogue was only important if it guaranteed the UPND and its alliance parties a gateway to State House in 2021, she said.

Ms Nawakwi said the national dialogue was merely a vehicle for regime change and nothing else.

She said if the three church mother bodies would not base the dialogue on the proposed agenda, then the four political parties would pull out of the talks and advise government to go ahead to take the Amendment Bill for the Constitution and Public Order Act, among others, to Parliament for amendment.

Meanwhile, MMD president Felix Mutati said national dialogue must only focus on legal reforms. Mr Mutati said legal reforms were important to enhance peace and stability in the country. And Rainbow party secretary general Wynter Kabimba said the national dialogue would only be successful if the three church mother bodies brought forth the agenda which was agreed upon.

Mr Kabimba said the national dialogue must border on reforms to address the political instability in the country.

ULP president Sakwiba Sikota, however, said the three years period set for the national dialogue by the three church mother bodies was not necessary, stating that focusing on legal reforms would only take short period of time.