 I would like to make a comment on the ongoing debate on the issue of the deregistration of the patriotic front. On the 14th of March 2012, we woke up to the following story which read the Opposition Movement for Multipartial Democracy has been deregistered and all the 53 seats it has in parliament have been nullified. The Opposition Movement for Multipartial Democracy, MMD, has been deregistered as a political party in Zambia. Chief Register of Societies Clement Andelaki has also told the media briefing in Lusaka today that the MMD's registration as a political party has been cancelled for non-compliance with the Societies Act. The Chief Register of Societies has further nullified the 53 parliamentary seats held by the Opposition MMD. Mr. Andelaki explains that the circumstance that has led to the cancellation of the registration of the former ruling party arrives from among other reasons, non-payment of statutory fees totaling to about 390 million quatra. He says the decision has been arrived at after several reminders to the party from the time it was in government. Mr. Andelaki has further indicated that he will notify the Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr. Patrick Mattivini, to take note of the nullification of the seats held by the deregistered MMD. I've only read this to add context to the debate that is going on, that the patriotic front could face deregistration. Our position, basically knowing that we've gone through this ourselves as MMD, is that the Office of the Registrar exists to ensure that all the parties or organizations that are registered under that office comply with the law regarding running those different societies. So I was only a few weeks old as President of MMD when this bombshell was released on us. We must say that during that time the rate of 390 million quatra was equivalent, I believe, to about 84,000 United States dollars. So it was a mountain we thought we could not climb. And so we are making this statement to help our colleagues in the patriotic front. We do not believe it is necessary for the Registrar to be looking for parties to deregister. However, it's a responsibility of all the societies under the Registrar of Societies to ensure that they are up to speed with the requirements of the law. What we did as MMD is that we chose to move away from politics. We knew it had political undertones at that time. But we knew that if we went that route, we would not make progress. So we decided to go legal with it. We decided to ask the question why. When they explained that we needed to pay the 390 million quatra, we looked at the records and we agreed with the government that truly the arrogance of being in power has consequences. MMD for 20 years had stopped paying the statutory fees due to the Registrar of Societies. I think that this issue of feeling that because you are in power, you are not required to abide by the law, I think should come to an end. So we decided not to be political about that. We decided to approach them and enter into negotiations with the Registrar of Societies. After our negotiations with them, they were gracious enough to give us another 14 days within which to come up with the amount and pay. And we did. By God's grace, we raised the $84,000 even before the 14 days was over. That's how we saved the movement for multi-party democracy from the registration. And that's how come we saved the 10 years of all our members of parliament, 53 of them, from being thrown out of parliament. We followed the procedure and today MMD stands and we would like to advise our colleagues in the patriotic front. This has nothing to do with politics. I think that when a political party is in power, there's this feeling that they don't have to obey anything. And I think patriotic front has demonstrated over the years that abiding by the rule of law was not one of the greatest strengths. And we have many examples as MMD about the PF, but that's not what this thing is all about. Our advice to all colleagues is to sit down with the Registrar of Societies, listen to what has been broken and fix it so that democracy can continue to thrive in our country. But arrogance, when being challenged to provide the necessary information, will not help the patriotic front. To the contrary, if they continue to be politically arrogant in complying with the requirements of the law, we might end up with them truly being deregistered. And so we speak from a place of experience and we think that our colleagues can learn from us and just comply with what the law requires of all of us. Thank you and may God bless our great republic.