10 July 2009
EIGHTEEN Patriotic Front (PF) district executive committee officials in Serenje have resigned from the party, citing alleged dictatorial tendencies by the party president Michael Sata.
The officials accused Mr Sata of imposing on them a Parliamentary candidate, Mutale Chanda, for the Chitambo Constituency by-election to be held next month. The PF has, however, denied this development.
Former PF district chairperson, Martin Chikate, who was accompanied by former district secretary Charles Mwelwa, said 18 out of 20 district officials had quit the party and thrown their support behind the FDD candidate Evans Chola.
Mr Chikate said few people knew Mr Chanda in Chitambo Constituency. He said officials felt ignored and sidelined even after advising the party to pick either Philip Kosamu, a businessman who was the first choice, or Evans Chola who was second choice because the two were more popular than Mr Chanda.
He said Mr Chanda, a Lusaka businessman, would be difficult to campaign for because he was not known in the constituency and would not win the by-election. "The PF would have won this by-election if only its top brass officials including Mr Michael Sata had listened to us and picked one of the two local candidates.
"We feel discarded and frustrated and because of this, we have decided to leave the party. We have decided to hit back on Mr Sata over the Chitambo by-election adoption by resigning," they said. They said they had not yet decided to join another political party but would throw their weight behind Mr Chola who they said had a better chance of winning the election.
The other candidates whose nomination papers were valid included UNIP candidate Timothy Kapolo, a farmer of Chipundu area, MMD candidate, Solomon Musonda, a medical doctor, and FDD's Mr Chola, also a businessman.
PF spokesperson Given Lubinda said that he was in constant touch with the leadership as well as general membership in Chitambo and such reports might have been perpetrated by enemies of the party to portray the UPND/PF pact as being divided.
He said that, in fact, there was no substance in such reports as the entire membership was agreeable about the candidature of Mr Mutale. He said that if PF members were not happy with Mr Mutale, they should have expressed such during the selection process. And MMD chairperson for elections Mike Mulongoti has dismissed claims by Mr Lubinda that the ruling party has engaged Chinese nationals to boost its campaigns in Chitambo Constituency ahead of the August 13, by-election.
He said in an interview in Chitambo yesterday that Mr Lubinda's claims were baseless because the MMD had the required support in Chitambo and there was no need to solicit support of the Chinese.
Mr Lubinda was yesterday quoted in the media as having said that the MMD had engaged Chinese nationals in Chitambo to help distribute their campaign wares that included Chitenge materials.
And Central Province Minister Ackimson Banda said that the fact that the UPND/PF had imposed a candidate on the people of Chitambo was good ammunition for the MMD to recapture its seat easily.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 The Times of Zambia. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
