Maravi

MMD C/belt councillors call for change of top leadership

MMD C/belt councillors call for change of top leadership
By Darious Kapembwa and Mwila Chansa
Sat 30 Oct. 2010, 04:00 CAT

SOME MMD councillors on the Copperbelt have said the performance of the party in recent parliamentary and ward by-elections is a wake-up call to change the top leadership, starting with President Rupiah Banda. And the councillors have expressed fear that the MMD does not stand a chance in the forthcoming general elections next year, given its current form.

Speaking in separate interviews, MMD Mutaba ward councillor David Kalutwa said he agreed with some party leaders for contending that MMD Lusaka Province chairman William Banda was the cause of the loss that the party suffered in Chilanga.

“You see people like William Banda are UNIP mentalists and it’s people like him and President Rupiah Banda from UNIP who should be gotten rid of, in order to polish up the party, because how can one, day in and out keep intimidating people? MMD is not known for that, but it’s happening now and the result is that we have lost almost all elections,” Kalutwa said.

He said the recent results showed that the people of Zambia were fed up with the MMD even in rural areas.

“If you look at Chilanga, it was our seat, there is no way we can allow UPND to win it, and when you talk of Mpulungu it is a clear fact that the PF is in control of that area. When you calculate how PF has managed to reduce the gap from almost 6,000 previously to 400, it tells you that we are in serious problems come next year and I can assure you that we the people are on the ground and we are listening from the grassroots. William and Rupiah must go back to UNIP,” he charged.

Other councillors from Copperbelt who spoke on condition of anonymity said the levels of resentment had grown because people were fed up with the MMD.

The councilors, in apparent reference to President Banda, said it was clear that a certain commander-in-chief had brought in his own lieutenants from UNIP who understood very little about the MMD.

“My brother you know that it was not like this previously because we had MMD leaders, but this time no matter how people want to pretend to keep their jobs, the fact is that next year doesn’t look promising for us if we maintain these people,” the councilors said.

But MMD Copperbelt youth chairman Evans Chibanda said blaming William Banda for the loss in Chilanga was misplaced.

He said Chilanga had always been turbulent for the MMD because even in 2006 they just won it by a ‘whisker’.

He claimed that the MMD was not worried about the losses they encountered in ward by-elections in Ndola, Luanshya and Chinsali because they were PF strongholds.

Chibanda said much as the results of the by-elections across the country stood as a wake-up call for the MMD, they also showed that democracy was thriving because people were able to choose leaders of their choice.

Labels: BY-ELECTIONS, COPPERBELT PROVINCE, EVANS CHIBANDA, MMD, RUPIAH BANDA, WILLIAM BANDA

posted by MrK @ 4:26 PM