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Chilanga has shown MMD a red card - Magande

Chilanga has shown MMD a red card - Magande
By Chibaula Silwamba and Mwala Kalaluka
Thu 28 Oct. 2010, 04:00 CAT

MMD has been shown a red card in Chilanga and is going into oblivion, former member of parliament for Chilanga Ng’andu Magande said yesterday. And Magande denounced President Rupiah Banda for commissioning developmental projects, which he and late president Levy Mwanawasa initiated without acknowledging the duo’s roles.

Meanwhile, Magande said UPND’s newly-elected Chilanga member of parliament Captain Capt Cosmas Moono’s popularity has declined because he got about 50 per cent of votes compared to those he garnered in 2006 when he lost to him.

Commenting on the MMD’s loss of the Chilanga parliamentary seat on Monday, in a by-election occasioned after the MMD expelled him for championing intra-party democracy, Magande said the electorate had shown the MMD that they were not happy with them.

“I think MMD has now been shown a red card without even Fr Frank Bwalya flashing it to them. In Chilanga, MMD has very slim chance of winning next year, especially when I put my candidate after I form my party. They will have no chance at all,” Magande said.

“What has happened in Chilanga is a sign and message to MMD that the Magande that you want to close the history books is still here and he also did something and for us we don’t appreciate that you want to write a history book without including the contribution of Magande to the development of the country.”

Magande said the MMD did not know the people of Chilanga and Zambia in general and would not retain power in 2011 elections.

“Zambians are beginning to get fade up with being told certain stories. Stories like, ‘now I am handing over 72 houses in Chipata for the police,’ without saying that ‘the previous president Levy Mwanawasa who passed away is the one who started these houses in 2007 and his Minister of Finance and his Minister of Home Affairs who is still with me are the ones who started it’,” Magande said.

“Why do you want to get credit on things that were done with other people? Somehow, MMD is no more there. It is very clear that MMD will go nowhere. They are avoiding mentioning my name that I was one of the people who started the projects.”

Magande attributed the apathy in the Chilanga by-election to the MMD’s intolerance towards him.

“The people are saying, ‘well, if you don’t want this person who has done so much for us, then we don’t accept you, go away.’ What I didn’t realise was the kind of rejection the party would face,” Magande said.

“I knew that the MMD would lose, one of the other parties would win but it would seem the Chilanga people just said: ‘we are fade up with you people for chasing Honourable Magande’.”

Magande said Capt Moono’s popularity had gone down.

“In 2006 we had about 16,000 voters. I don’t understand how people are not analytical. Can you imagine in 2006 he got about 6,000 6, 070 votes but this time around he has about 3, 000 votes 3, 702 votes, 50 per cent less, and he says, ‘I am very popular!” Magande said.

“I keep on saying, ‘I am a mathematician. Even if he is not a mathematician one time he will get 6,000 people saying they want him and within three years you get half of those people and you say, ‘I am still popular’.”

Magande observed that many voters that voted for Capt Moono in 2006 had not voted for him this time around.

“For me, it means he didn’t even get any one of my voters to vote for him, so there was no change. But from what I am getting, there was a lot of apathy. Obviously, most of the MMD people did not participate in the campaign because they were sidelined by Lusaka provincial officials and I suspect they didn’t vote,” Magande said.

“I think the other voters were also not amused that MMD people go there are they say ‘Honourable Magande didn’t do anything’ even when I did over a 100 projects; roads, schools, boreholes.”

Magande said the electorate did not vote for the MMD because they were expressing their displeasure that they were not amusing that the MMD did not even consult them before expelling him as their member of parliament.

He said it was unfortunate that the current MMD leadership under President Rupiah Banda was not acknowledging the role previous MMD leaders played in initiating developmental projects.

“They forget MMD of 1991 when we brought democracy. You have to give people credit that this democracy we are enjoying now was because of the movement that was started in 1991. How do you tell Zambians about development starting in 2008. Can you finish?” Magande said. “How can you say, ‘I have done Chipata-Mchinga railway within the last 12 months or built this and that school within the last 12 months?’ Unfortunately, because of that, the MMD as an organisation is going into oblivion.”

Magande said Zambians had now started to speak out against the wrongs going on in the country.

“Zambians are saying, ‘we don’t want to be ruled by individuals, we want to be ruled by individuals using teams of people’,” Magande said. “Since I and Mpombo were removed, it would seem nobody is talking about the convention in MMD. How are they going to select the candidate if they don’t go to the convention? If you don’t have an executive committee, how do you run an institution and how do you prepare for succession.”

Magande said he was consulting widely in order to form a formidable political party ahead of the 2011 tripartite elections.

“I am consulting and by the time I announce my party it be before elections and it will be a credible team, anti corruption people and some people that maybe you have never heard of but Zambians who have a vision and passion to develop this country,” Magande said. “I am very happy that I am going back to my officials in Chilanga and they are saying, ‘for us we know what you have done in Chilanga, we want you to aim high and we are waiting for you to come and campaign for the presidential position’. That is encouraging.”

He said he was sure of getting the votes in 2011.

“I am just working out my programme, contacting people in Mwinilunga, Lundazi and other places, finding out what is happening there, finding out what is happening to the bumper harvest that is now going to be a bumper disaster,” Magande said. “So, I am going to see clearly, what this country can be and who could manage it better. So for me a party is not necessary because people know me already. I think they know me from what I did as a civil servant and minister of finance. I am in a hurry to look for a party but what I am in a hurry to do is to have a firm ground on what I intend to do for the country.”

UPND’s Capt Moono polled 3,702 votes beating MMD’s Keith Mukata who got 2,339 votes while UNIP and NAREP candidates got only 131 and 50 votes respectively.

The MMD had expelled Magande from the party for alleged indiscipline after he repeatedly questioned the undemocratic practices in the party.
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Labels: BY-ELECTIONS, COSMAS MOONO, MMD, NG'ANDU MAGANDE

posted by MrK @ 10:18 PM