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PF-UPND pact intact – HH

PF-UPND pact intact – HH
By Chibaula Silwamba
Fri 15 Jan. 2010, 04:00 CAT

UPND-PF pact is intact and President Rupiah Banda’s fabrications against the pact will not break us, UPND president Hakainde Hichilema said yesterday. And Hichilema said people in Western Province are demanding change of government, even today.

Reacting to yesterday's lead story in the Times of Zambia that the UPND executive committee was scouting for a female vice-president, preferably from the Northern-Province to enhance its chances of winning the 2011 presidential polls because it was clear that the pact with the Patriotic Front (PF) is crumbling, Hichilema accused President Banda, Vice-President George Kunda and information minister Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha of fabricating lies that the pact was crumbling, when in fact its popularity was growing.

The Times of Zambia reported that at a UPND extraordinary executive meeting held on January 6, 2010 chaired by Hichilema, serious concerns were raised about the manner the PF was conducting its campaigns in the private media and resolved that Professor Nkandu Luo be courted for the position of third vice-president.

But Hichilema said the UPND has never held such a meeting in January 2010.
“What do you expect from the MMD mouthpiece? The Times of Zambia and Zambia Daily Mail are MMD mouthpiece and everyone knows that,” said Hichilema from Kaoma in Western Province where he is campaigning for the pact ahead of the 2011 elections. “If there is anything that worries the MMD, it is the pact; the UPND-PF pact. There is no doubt about that.

Any sane, normal Zambian will be aware that the government machinery including the newspapers such as the Times of Zambia and Daily Mail will project the image that the pact is not going to last. That is what we expect from them. So there is no surprise about that.

“They will buy a few people, they are well known, from PF and UPND to project that image. We have been aware of that from day one, even before we consummated the pact, we were aware that the government will do things like that. So there is nothing to worry about.”

Hichilema said there was no national management committee meeting of the UPND on January 6, 2010.

“On 6th January, I was on my ranch in Choma. There was no NMC meeting. The vice-president Richard Kapita was in Mwinilunga. UPND spokesperson Charles Kakoma was in Zambezi. Most of the NMC members were out. The facts are wrong. They show you how desperate the MMD are. They are quoting a management meeting which was not there. I am the chairman of those meetings; there has not been a management meeting in January. I am in Lukulu now as we are speaking. Absolutely that is a lie, a fabrication of the MMD,” he said. “Everyone is aware that in UPND we have a portfolio for vice-president gender.

We made a decision in June 2009. For your information, the UPND has had its general assembly which is equivalent to a convention in June 2009 and at that meeting we approved among many things, the pact. The pact was approved by the highest policy making body in the UPND. The other decision we made there was to bring in another vice-president who would be vice-president gender.”
Hichilema denied ever courting Professor Luo, former health minister and now HIV/AIDS activist, as a party vice-president.

“We have not tried to look at any name like the name Professor Luo you have mentioned and there is nothing to insinuate that we are going to fill the position of vice-president gender because the pact will not last; it's just their figment of imagination by the MMD,” Hichilema said.

“The whole MMD is panicking so they are trying to use the Times of Zambia or the Daily Mail to portray the picture that the pact is cracking. We expect that but I think the people of Zambia are resolved towards uniting Zambia and delivering a government under the UPND and PF pact. I am telling the people of Zambia: 'be calm out there.'”

Hichilema said the MMD was behaving the way UNIP behaved just before it was voted out in 1991 at the height of campaigns to reintroduce multiparty democracy.

“We saw that in 1991 when UNIP was exiting. They made all sorts of propaganda,” Hichilema said. “ This is the work of Shikapwasha, Rupiah Banda and George Kunda. They think propaganda means telling lies. Propaganda means marketing information which is correct, not wrong information. They are fabricating stories and that shows you the low quality of leadership in the MMD. These are kicks of a dying horse.”

And Hichilema said people in Western Province were resolved to vote out the MMD.
“The message from Western Province is clear from the rallies we were having, it's like we are having elections tomorrow. People are saying: 'lubata kuchincha' we want change. They want elections even this year; that is what they are saying,” said Hichilema.

Labels: HAKAINDE HICHILEMA, PF-UPND

posted by MrK @ 4:59 PM