MMD risks grinding to a halt, says Magande

MMD risks grinding to a halt, says Magande
Written by Katwishi Bwalya
Sunday, June 21, 2009 3:24:39 PM

FORMER finance minister Ng'andu Magande has said President Rupiah Banda's possible candidature for the 2011 elections can only be resolved at the MMD convention.

Commenting on calls by some sections of the MMD to defer the party convention following the national executive committee (NEC)'s decision to adopt President Banda as the sole presidential candidate for the next polls, Magande said the ruling party risked grinding to a halt if it failed to abide by its principles upon which it was founded in 1991.

Magande, who is also Chilanga MMD member of parliament, said the ruling party needed to go to the convention.

"The only place you can go and ask for the opinion of the members is the convention. So if they don't want the elections for the president of the party, let's go to the convention then the membership who are elected from the wards and branches and constituencies are going to resolve the matter," Magande said in an interview last Wednesday. "I want to assure you that the only thing that moves a static thing is a movement. So, that is the danger that the party runs into. But if the party grinds itself to a halt by not following up things that it was started for in 1991, a movement will come and sweep it off. And you can see that movement is already starting with the pact between UPND and the PF. That is a movement and therefore, if we are not being careful we will be made irrelevant."

Magande said he supported the holding of the convention because he had an obligation to report to the voters who elected him as party chairperson for finance and economic affairs.

"For me, I still have an obligation to report to the voters who voted for me and someone who is responsible for organising a meeting of those people must organise the meeting so that I go there and report [on] how I have managed the economy and the finances of this country. I campaigned on a manifesto that 'I had done this, ... I was in government and if I were elected and become a member of NEC and MMD won the elections in 2006 I was going to continue to implement these economic policies'," Magande said. "Now we have to go back to the people who elected us and we are not elected by NEC. We are not even elected by two or three people, it was thousands of people that elected us. So these people are waiting to hear whether this chairman of finance and economic affairs has delivered and if I have delivered that is the only way I can continue to be in the leadership of the party and if I have not delivered they will vote me out now. To say that we just continue even the old, then what you are saying is that even the members of the Executive who are not effective should continue being at the helm of the party. It is not fair."

Magande charged that democracy in the MMD was completely being shelved.

He said it was unfortunate that a few people were being paraded on national television to call for the deferment of the convention.

"And you know MMD is Movement for Multi Party Democracy. Movement means something moving. The way now this is coming out is to say we have no convention so the movement is becoming static. [And] there is no movement and democracy means people have to vote for their leaders and now you are saying these leaders should continue until perhaps 2012 or 2014. So both the M and the D are being completely sidelined," he said.

On the warn and caution statement that the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) recorded from him over his involvement with Zambian Airways when he served as finance minister, Magande said the development would not jeorpardise his political career because he had nothing to hide on the matter.

On Wednesday, the DEC recorded a warn and caution statement from Magande over Zambian Airways.