Both MMD, UPND want Mufumbwe

Both MMD, UPND want Mufumbwe
By Kombe Chimpinde
Sun 09 Sep. 2012, 10:30 CAT

THE MMD says it's only logical that UPND leaves the Mufumbwe seat for it to contest. But UPND says it is very strong in Mufumbwe and therefore deserves to field a candidate.

In an interview on Friday, MMD deputy secretary general Chembe Nyangu said although the MMD and UPND, who had an electoral alliance, had not convened a meeting to discuss how it would forge ahead in terms of the pending by-election in Mufumbwe following the resignation of the area member of parliament, there was no question on who should contest it as the UPND had been given Chongwe and Livingstone seats in recent by-elections.

"Although we have not yet discussed, the only logic is they should give us the seat. We gave them Chongwe and supported them. We also gave them Livingstone," Nyangu said.

"We had a feeling that the seat would be vacant. So we are expecting to work with UPND. The local constituency and ward officials are already working well together in Mufumbwe."

But UPND spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa said that people of Mufumbwe had realised that the seat would have been given to UPND and not politicians who triggered by-elections for their selfish gains.

"Mufumbwe (seat) has come so soon. We have not yet really sat and taken a position, but I can tell you that UPND is very strong in Mufumbwe. We however started re-organising structures after we realised that a by-election would come anytime," he said.

This is not the first time UPND is differing with alliance parties over fielding of candidates.

In June 2010, UPND and PF had a stalemate on who to field in Luena Constituency in Western Province.

This was after Charles Milupi resigned to form the Alliance for Democracy and Development (ADD).

Differences between UPND and PF ensued and both parties came up with preferred candidates for the seat.

This was despite both parties signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) which stated that a party would only field parliamentary candidates in areas where they were strong.

In September 2010, the UPND and PF again differed over who was supposed to field a candidate in Mpulungu Constituency during a by-election. UPND insisted on fielding a candidate in Mpulungu despite the PF being popular and having come out second to MMD in earlier elections.

The UPND and PF had similar problems in fielding candidates in by-elections in Eastern Province and before last year's general elections.
This led to calls in October by some political leaders for UPND leadership to accept a junior status in the party.

FDD president Edith Nawakwi advised the UPND to calmly accept their status as a junior partner in the PF-UPND pact.

Commenting on the popularity arguments involving the PF and UPND, Nawakwi said UPND did the same to FDD in 2006 when they asked them to accept that UPND was bigger than all the parties which were in the United Democratic Alliance (UDA).

"I hope that the UPND will accept that they are the junior partner. I hope that my colleagues in UPND calmly take the statement that they have fewer seats, they are younger because that is how we felt. I hope that they are not feeling as bad as we felt when we were being told we had 12 seats in the House and that we didn't have enough money," Nawakwi said then.

"They should take their status calmly and accept it just as they expected us to accept it because we were being told that we couldn't provide helicopters and we only had 12 seats. It is the same language which is being played on them that they played on us."

Recently, some political commentators have argued that an alliance between UPND and MMD would not work because UPND had a habit of not giving in and failing to accommodate the demands of other parties.

PF's Eric Chanda said: "The UPND claim to be in an alliance with the MMD but if you look at the local government statistics where they have fielded candidates, you will notice that the MMD and UPND have both fielded candidates in two of the local government by-elections," he said.

"This to me shows that the alliance is cosmetic and it is not going anywhere because the UPND can never be trusted in an alliance. The PF tried an alliance with them and they went against the rules of the alliance, which we formed and at the end of the day it crumbled. I want to tell the MMD that they are wasting time with the UPND."

And Sources have disclosed that the MMD are courting its North Western provincial chairman Stanford Mulusa, who lost to immediate past member of parliament Stephen Masumba in the 2011 primaries as well as a Jaimo who is a local businessman.
Sources also disclosed that some senior party officials in UPND were making attempts to hold meetings with Eliot Kamondo, the former UPND member of parliament, who was now a member of the PF, to re-contest on its ticket.
But Kamondo said his leaving UPND was on principle and he would never look back.
Kamondo said it was possible for the PF to carry the day, if a popular candidate was fielded.

He advised that politics in Mufumbwe had not so much depended on a party, but on the quality of candidates adopted at a given time.

Masumba maintained in a separate interview that he had a huge following in the area and brought on board a lot of people to the PF.

He also warned that the MMD should brace itself for mass defections to the PF, stressing that the people of North Western Province had realised that the opposition political parties had no future.