Addressing the media and leaders of the Tonse Alliance in Lusaka, President Lubinda declared that the enactment of Bill 7 represented a dangerous rupture in Zambia’s constitutional order. He asserted that this was driven by a government unwilling to heed the voices of citizens, civil society, the church, or professional bodies.

Central to his address, Honourable Given Lubinda cited the landmark Constitutional Court judgment in Celestine Mukandila and Munir Zulu v Attorney General. This ruling unequivocally found that the government’s approach to constitutional amendments was inconsistent with the spirit and substance of the Constitution. Lubinda stressed that the court's guidance on people-driven constitutional reform, led by an independent body, and anchored in wide, genuine, and meaningful public consultations, was deliberately ignored by the UPND government. Instead, the government chose a path of defiance and constitutional erosion, thereby weakening democracy, breaking public trust, and placing the Republic at serious risk by disregarding the constituent authority of the people.

President Lubinda further stated that civil society organisations, the Law Association of Zambia, the church, and citizens across the country had spoken with one voice against the Bill 7 process, but their rejection was dismissed outright. This disregard, according to Honourable Given Lubinda, demonstrated a pattern of governance that excludes dissenting voices and treats national consensus as an inconvenience.

Turning to Parliament, President Lubinda accused Members of Parliament of a