By ALEX NJOVU
SOME Patriotic Front (PF) members of Parliament attending the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) have said the confusion that has rocked the PF-United Party for National Development (UPND) pact is an indicator of worse things to come.
Luapula MP Peter Machungwa said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that PF MPs attending the NCC have always maintained that the pact between PF and UPND has never existed.
Dr Machungwa said the whole idea of forming the ‘so-called’ pact was to field one presidential candidate in next year’s elections.
The PF is headed by Mr Michael Sata while the UPND’s president is Mr Hakainde Hichilema.
“But both (Sata and Hichilema) want to stand. The pact was doomed from the very beginning. What is happening now is a harbinger of things to come. It is an indicator of worse things to come,” he said.
And commenting on Mr Hichilema’s statement in yesterday’s Sunday Post that PF and UPND have a challenge of seeing which party can help to win elections, Dr Machungwa said his understanding of the remarks is that the UPND wants to field its presidential candidate.
“It is an indirect way of saying Sata should step aside,” he said.
Dr Machungwa said what is important for Zambians to know is the fact that the pact cannot work because there is nothing in common between the two opposition political parties.
He said PF and UPND have different manifestoes, constitutions and ideologies for them to harmonise and effectively work together.
“So, it is like mixing water and oil. The two cannot be mixed to form one solution. Us PF MPs attending the NCC have been very clear that we will not support the pact,” Dr Machungwa said.
Bahati MP Besa Chimbaka said in a separate interview that Mr Sata and Mr Hichilema have allegedly been deceiving each other because both leaders want to stand for the presidency next year.
Mr Chimbaka said the PF-UPND pact does not exist but that it is a mere political platform for deceiving each other.
He said Mr Sata and Mr Hichilema cannot be trusted by Zambians because they are not capable of running the affairs of the country.
Matero MP Faustina Sinyangwe also said the pact is only at the national level of the two opposition political parties and that the grassroots members know nothing about it.
“I believe it (pact) should have started from the ground. They must get the feeling of the people on the ground. They must manage the affairs of the grassroots people,” she said.
Mrs Sinyangwe said the pact has many challenges which the leaders need to work at for it to succeed.
“I did not see this from anybody else but from my uncle (Sata) himself,” she said.
And Mr Munkonge said in an interview yesterday in Kitwe that more pact members will start defecating to the ruling MMD because the partnership does not exist on the ground.
Mr Munkonge was suspended from UPND after he filed his nomination paper as an independent candidate against the PF candidate who was picked by the pact.
He claimed that there is no democracy in the pact and stressed that the MMD will emerge victorious in the 2011 general elections.
Mr Munkonge said for the pact to be fair to potential candidates they should conduct primary elections to come up with credible candidates who can win seats for the alliance.
He said the pact only exists at the national level because there are no structures at the lower organs of the two political parties.
“For example, in Chifubu constituency in Ndola, the UPND had a very good candidate but because the area is believed to be a PF stronghold, the PF was allowed to contest the seat. What has happened in Chadiza, Kaoma and Chimwemwe is an iceberg of the problems in the pact.
“Patriotic Front president Mr Michael Sata and UPND leader Mr Hakainde Hichilema must humble themselves and admit that the pact has failed. Let them take the pact to the people on the ground like Chilubi Island and Shango’mbo and sell it to members of the public,” Mr Munkonge said.
He wondered why all seats in urban areas should be reserved for the PF at the expense of UPND aspirants.
Mr Munkonge said some UPND members are popular in urban areas but cannot contest parliamentary or local government elections because of the belief that PF is the only popular opposition political party in town.
He said UPND members in urban areas should forget about becoming parliamentarians or city fathers as long as the guidelines of the pact are not reviewed.
“There are undemocratic tendencies in the pact. The decision to suspend me from UPND was done in bad faith. I decided to contest the ward in Chimwemwe because I have a democratic right to do so and am very popular in Chimwemwe. I can assure you that people will start defecating to other political parties especially the MMD because there is no future in the pact,” Mr Munkonge said.
During the filing of nominations on Thursday in Kitwe, Mr Munkonge was rejected with some PF officials labelling the UPND as a village political party that does not have the following in urban areas.
Mr Munkonge, who filed his nomination papers as an independent candidate, has since been suspended from UPND.
But PF spokesperson Given Lubinda said the pact is strong on the ground and accused some politicians of peddling lies against the alliance to win political mileage.
Mr Lubinda said in an interview yesterday that it is only bitter politicians who are claiming that the future of the pact is bleak.
He said the decision by Mr Munkonge to resign from UPND is a clear indication that he is not a good leader.
Mr Lubinda said Mr Munkonge should not claim that there are no structures on the ground when he was one of the leaders spearheading the pact at ward level.
He said as UPND ward chairman, Mr Munkonge was the one who was supposed to strengthen the pact on the ground.
Mr Lubinda however said Mr Munkonge was a hardworking leader who contributed a lot to the establishment of the pact in Chimwemwe.
“What he has done shows that he was working hard for personal gain. We have structures on the ground and the pact is strong,” Mr Lubinda said.
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