Nevers tells aspirants for MMD vice-presidency to stop campaigning in the media

Nevers tells aspirants for MMD vice-presidency to stop campaigning in the media
By Fridah Nkonde, Roy Habaalu and Mukosha Funga
Tue 10 July 2012, 13:24 CAT

MMD president Nevers Mumba has banned those aspiring for the party's vice-presidency from campaigning in the media. But sources say the move is aimed at crippling Solwezi Central member of parliament Lucky Mulusa from increasing his support base.

Meanwhile, the MMD in Lusaka says convicted former labour minister Austin Liato would be a liability to the party's re-branding process if elected vice-president.

Mumba said the election of vice-presidents for politics and administration would be done among National Executive Committee (NEC) members and that it would be unwise for aspirants to campaign through the media as the party was currently making consultations. Asked whether the ban was aimed at Mulusa, Mumba responded in the negative.

"It is not true and that is not the position of the party. I don't want to say much but the only thing I can say right now is that that is not the position of the party...even if you call Hon Mulusa, he will not be able to talk to you because he is not supposed to talk to the media," said Mumba in an interview.

But sources said Mulusa was the only one who had been banned from campaigning through the media.

"We do not like what we are seeing…we are not happy because we people want new blood and Mulusa for vice-presidency, but he is being sidelined. They know very well that Mulusa is frank and is ready to work for the people, that is why they are blocking him," sources said.

Sources wondered why the party leadership was tolerating corruption by allowing those with questionable characters to lead the former ruling party.

They said Pastor Mumba would find it hard to re-brand the MMD because he was allegedly sidelining candidates that would change it for the better.

Sources said NEC members had paid a deaf ear to Liato's case and some were encouraging him not to give up.

Mwandi member of parliament Michael Kaingu and Mulusa have announced their candidature for the vice-presidency. Liato has not formally announced his intensions but youths from Western Province have endorsed his candidature.

And six constituencies in Lusaka that earlier supported the candidature of Liato as the party's vice-president politics said after consulting the grassroots, they had realised that doing so would be a mistake.

The constituencies are Matero, Chawama, Kanyama, Lusaka Central, Mandevu and Munali.

In a statement, MMD Kabwata vice-publicity secretary Alice Daka said only new faces would save the party from collapsing if it was serious about bouncing back to power.

She said Liato must be excused from contesting to allow him attend to his court cases. She described Liato as a good man with experience who should be allowed to continue supporting the party.

"A warning to the party is that those with the mandate entrusted to them by the general membership should not abuse the privileges of being National Executive Committee (NEC) members by peddling opportunities for personal gain," read Daka's statement.

"We are also calling on the party president to get down to work and act on the assurances raised at Mulungushi (International Conference Centre) in his speech during his inauguration that the re-branding process should not be overtaken by events because he will be perceived to be rhetorical." She stated that pastor Mumba should work and heed advice from old members who had insisted that the party conducts a postmortem.

Daka stated that the MMD should not take Zambians for granted and forget the issues that led to its embarrassing downfall.

Meanwhile, Evangelical Church of Zambia Reverend Moses Lungu stated that the MMD's pride and failure to heed to true and valuable advice would be costly for them.

He stated that it would be catastrophic if the party ignored advice and became irrelevant to the core values of democracy.

"We are saying that intra-party freedoms and liberties are fundamentally important in strengthening the party. Tolerance of dissenting views is cardinal because it exposes the weaknesses of the party to work on," stated Rev Lungu in a statement.