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THE Opposition MMD will not participate in next month’s Parliamentary by- elections in Kapiri and Lukulu West.
MMD President Nevers Mumba revealed that the party has resolved not to participate in the two elections in order to concentrate on reorganizing itself.
Dr. Mumba said during a media briefing yesterday that the party will place emphasis on nationwide party mobilization.
“These by-elections are meant to obstruct the opposition from pursuing programs of party mobilization. The PF government is not winning these by-elections but rigging them,” Dr. Mumba said.
“Our Vice President shall oversee the by- elections in conjunction with Chairman for Elections,by-elections for the moment shall not be a priority to me as we want to prepare the party for the 2016 general elections. I will be launching my nationwide tour dubbed New Hope Tour next week.”
He said the culture of creating unnatural by- elections by the PF government is a reckless style of governing a nation.
Dr. Mumba said the by- elections are costly and are done at the expense of many attendant needs of the population.The MMD leader also called for the reorganization of the Electoral Commission of Zambia.
“We wish to express our total loss of confidence in the ECZ which continues to authenticate elections held under dubious conditions. We do not believe that ECZ in its current form will contribute to a more just electoral process,” Dr. Mumba said.
‘In the same vein, we also demand that the police stay out of the actual administration of elections, their performance in the PF administration by-elections has depleted all confidence the MMD used to have in our police service. Their role must be redefined and probably be replaced by another security wing.”
On the Speaker’s handling of the motion to lift Mr. Banda’s immunity, Dr. Mumba said the Speaker’s current state of mind appears to be at great variance with his good and sound reputation as a fair minded person of the bench.
“Over his grave and inexplicable behavior in this presidential immunity matter, we believe that it would be in his best interest to tender his resignation as Speaker of the House in order to preserve his hard earned reputation,” the MMD leader said.
In his article The Parallel Universe Series Issue no5: Unnecessary By – Elections published in February 2013,Narep President Elais Chipimo wrote that when the 2011 elections were over, PF had won 60 seats, while the MMD managed to obtain 55. The rest were made up of UPND, FDD, ADD and 3 independents. Two seats were not contested because of the death of two parliamentary candidates just before the election. The 60 seats held by the PF were not enough to form a working majority in the legislature.
To achieve that, they needed to win 80 seats (basically half of 158 MP’s – 150 being elected and 8 being nominated). Subsequent by-elections have seen an increase in the number of PF MP’s to 71 (63 elected and 8 nominated). This had left the PF short by at least 9 MP’s for an overall majority, hence the mad rush to create unnecessary by-elections and to co-opt opposition MP’s into government ranks
