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THE legitimate MMD is not backing PF, says leader Nevers Mumba.
And Mumba says President Edgar Lungu should not be identified with illegality and asked him to reject the endorsement by the Felix Mutati faction for lacking legitimacy.
In an interview yesterday, Mumba said his party would in the next two days announce its alliance partners for the August 11 general elections.
He said Mutati’s MMD faction that elected him president and announced that they were backing President Lungu in the August 11 elections is the “RB party, not MMD”.
“MMD did not sanction any convention, we don’t even know who paid for that convention. We want to make it very clear that that [backing PF and President Lungu in this election] is not the MMD position. The legitimate MMD is not backing PF,” Mumba said.
He said Banda was a shame and would sink with PF after this year’s election.
And Mumba warned President Lungu not to embrace illegality because doing so would be denting Zambia’s democratic standing and taking the country back to jungle politics.
“If he is involved in this move, we are shaming our country, retarding our democratic progress and we are going to become a laughing stock. We will almost be going back to jungle politics where a group of people organise themselves outside President Lungu’s government and create a parallel government and start calling themselves as the true PF when President Lungu is still in government. If he entertains this illegality, he will be inviting rogue elements in this country,” Mumba said. “This must stop as it is embarassing to us as a people and anybody who entertains it is out of his mind. They should just call it another name, Rupiah Banda party; it has nothing to do with the MMD. This is not good for the President; the President must not be the one to be involved in matters of this nature; it will injure him and make him leave State House in August.”
He said President Lungu should not deceive himself to think he will get votes using the Mutati faction.
“If this faction is perpetuated by the President and he thinks that he will get some votes from this arrangement, this is the last nail on PF’s coffin; they will never see government again. If I were him, I would distance myself from this illegality because the President should not be identified with illegality. In fact, the President should reject that faction from endorsing him saying that they lack legitimacy,” Mumba said. “If they endorse him, he also becomes an illegitimately supported President. He should be brave enough to say ‘no, you go and legitimise yourself and that’s when you can endorse me’. Right now, they are illegitimate…They (PF) are losing this coming election. They have embraced an illegality; it’s a shame. MMD brought democracy and we would like democracy to be respected and they should not interfere with the legality of other parties. I hope President Lungu distances himself from it but if he doesn’t, he will sink with them.”
He said MMD did not go to a convection and that whatever decision Mutati and his group made was irrelevant and had no bearing on the direction of the MMD.
“We are not going to be commenting on a fraud that has produced an illegal president without any authority from the constitution of our party and also the national executive committee. Members of the MMD are not sticks without feelings, they are human beings who reason and think. You can’t just have a meeting under a tree in Kabwe and think you can place people under a corrupt arrangement! People are disgusted that just after the illegal convention, the illegal committee and president have decided to go ahead and endorse PF,” said Mumba.
“That’s the plan Rupiah Banda has always had; he had already gone to PF, so he just came back to get more members from our party. This time, it’s not going to work. This is a very shameful move that the former president is making. It’s a Rupiah Banda political party and not MMD.”
[postzambia.com]
