Maravi

There should be no shortcuts in MMD presidency election - Katele

There should be no shortcuts in MMD presidency election - Katele
By Moses Kuwema
Wed 04 Apr. 2012, 12:59 CAT

KATELE Kalumba says there should be no shortcuts in the election of the MMD president. Commenting on the MMD National Executive Committee (NEC)'s unanimous decision to elect its party president through provincial conventions to take place simultaneously, Kalumba wondered under what constitutional provisions the NEC based its decision.

"The idea of a party conference in this respect is to elect the leadership of the party in provinces. The provincial conferences under the MMD constitution are not there to elect the president of the party. So under what constitutional provision will they stand in using provincial conferences as a vehicle for electing a president? I think the party leadership is failing to address the challenges it faces and they are trying to look at shortcuts," said Kalumba who is former MMD national secretary.

He challenged the party leadership to acknowledge that they no longer had access to public resources hence its opting to use the provincial conferences to elect the president.

"They just have to do the right thing. This is a wrong way of electing a president; they can say that I am not being realistic owing to the fact that they can agree that they do not have access to public resources that's why they are now using this method. If they can accept that then I will take their statement as a step in the right direction because the consequence of that is to do what I have been calling for: to publicly apologise for the many wrongs that the MMD has committed against the Zambian people," he said.

Kalumba said the method that the MMD wanted to use to elect the party president was not designed by the party constitution and was challengeable.

He said the MMD was carrying the seeds of self-destruction owing to some of the decisions that were being made.

"All I am saying is that own up before you can become a realistic party. Right now they are carrying the seeds of self -destruction and I don't expect a leader amongst them to rise up and do the rightful thing that would be accepted by Zambians," Kalumba said.

"The response that it is not all of us who made mistakes is a very irrational response to that debate because we are talking about institutional collective responsibility. Individual responsibility is the matter of the law. It's about governance and ethical wrongs. I know that people have accused me of being PF and looking for mercy from the PF government. This was said before when I was national secretary so that is not new."

MMD chairman for elections Gabriel Namulambe announced that the party unanimously agreed to hold provincial polls to elect the president following the party's failure to marshal funds to hold an extra-ordinary convention to elect its party president.

Namulambe also said the NEC also agreed to have an electoral commission that would also set the date for the provincial polls and not NEC as per tradition.

"We have decided that they (members) do the voting in their respective provinces. The voting time and the counting of the total votes will be done the same day," Namulambe said.

"Mind you, the provinces have constituency and district executives who form the Electoral College. These are the same delegates who were expected to come to the convention for the position we are going to fill - the position of party president. So instead of bringing all the delegates in one place, they will just vote from their respective provinces," he said.

Labels: KATELE KALUMBA, MMD, NEC, PRESIDENCY

posted by MrK @ 3:19 PM