UPND members ask HH to call for a convention

UPND members ask HH to call for a convention
Written by Chibaula Silwamba and Lambwe Kachali
Monday, December 01, 2008 3:57:26 AM

SOME members of the UPND National Management Committee (NMC) last Thursday challenged their president Hakainde Hichilema to call for a convention before the 2011 elections in the wake of his two consecutive losses and expiration of his tenure in 2011.

And Hichilema confirmed that the NMC meeting took place but declined to disclose what was discussed and also ruled out the possibility of holding a convention before 2011.

According to UPND sources who attended the meeting to review the October 30 elections and the party's performance, Hichilema had argued that the party did not have money to hold the convention.

"The meeting was attended by over 40 members of the National Management Committee, including all provincial chairpersons, all members of parliament and all senior members of the National Management Committee. This was a postmortem meeting of last month's presidential election.

The meeting was held at the UPND secretariat in Rhodes Park in Lusaka, it started at 10:00 hours and ended around 15:00 hours on Thursday," the sources said. "The NMC members challenged president Hichilema to call for a convention before 2011 so that those who want to contest for positions including the presidency could do so and if he wants to defend his position, he is free to re-contest.

But his response was that there is no money to hold the convention. But the NMC members said if there is will, money will be found."

The sources said holding the convention would give the party a national status and attract more people to join it unlike the current perception that the party was tribal.

"The members argued that he [Hichilema] has failed twice," the sources said. "Those who supported him, mainly members of parliament from Southern Province, said he was elected president for a five-year term and since it's not 2011 there was no need to talk about the convention.

They said his term has not come to an end. But other members argued that president Hichilema's term will have ended before the 2011 [national] presidential elections. They, therefore, said there was need to hold a convention before 2011 to elect a party president and other officials."

The sources said the meeting noted that Hichilema lost the elections partly due to insufficient funds, poor organisational strategy and because Hichilema was mainly surrounded by his tribesmen and women.

When contacted, Hichilema said he would not discuss party issues, especially matters of the NMC with the press.

He said any person who disclosed what NMC discussed did not deserve to be part of the committee.

"I cannot tell you what we discussed in the National Management Meeting. I don't discuss issues of the National management Meeting with the press. Whoever told you about that is a wrong man. It shows how inappropriate and wrong that person is," Hichilema said.

Hichilema said the UPND constitution was crystal clear that a party president would be elected for five years and that the general membership should decide whether to re-elect him or not.

He noted that UPND was a democratic party and that the constitution would be followed and respected all the time.

He also observed that his five-year term would end after the 2011 general elections.

"Our constitution is very clear. A president is elected for five years but I have only done [served for] two years," he said. "...You know where there is a group there are wrong people, because what was discussed in the meeting was not for the outside."

Asked further if he would call for a convention as suggested by some party members, Hichilema responded: "Which members Lambwe? You must know that there is nothing like members. What is the membership of UPND? Is it one informer who came to your office and gave you this information? To disclose what was discussed in the National Management meeting means that, that informer is in a wrong place."

He observed that some people were being sponsored to bring confusion in the party.

Hichilema said it was not easy to run an opposition party and that it was important that party members unite and not cause problems.

"I cannot ask you about what you discuss in your editorial or management meetings at The Post. That is wrong and I know even if I ask, you cannot tell me. So, even if I chaired the meeting, I cannot give you that information.

That is not the way things should be handled. All I can say is that your informer is in a wrong place. You see, for example, you will find that some people may be given K10 million to come and disturb the party. I am talking in general terms. That's why some people are collapsing politically and go to support the ruling party," he said.

Hichilema further said he would not spend time talking about the convention when there were pressing issues affecting majority Zambians that could be attended to.

"Without viable opposition parties, you can't have democracy. Our only fear is that the people of Zambia are denied good services. Look at the mines, jobs are being shedded off. This is a national crisis, which requires a non-partisan approach. We need to sit down together to see how we can deal with this issue, how we can support the mining industry which is beginning to go down.

We need to put our heads together irrespective of political parties and see how we can help our people to keep their jobs, how we can help the mining companies to begin booming," said Hichilema.