THE UPND must stop play- ing cat and mouse games and go for the nation convention like the PF has done, Edward Mumbi has demanded.
Commenting on the PF’s announcement yesterday that the party will hold its con- vention in July, this year, Mr Mumbi said the UPND had been wadding in dictatorship since Mr Hichilema took over.
He said it was sad that the same party that had contin- uously branded the PF dicta- torial, had never been explicit about holding its convention at which leaders would be giv- en a new mandate.
Mr Mumbi is Mr Hichile- ma’s former spokesperson.
“As former secretary gener- al of the PF, I can tell you that one thing that PF has respect- ed in their party is democracy because even when Michael Sata was party president, the PF had always gone for con- ventions.
“This shows that their un- derstating of political leader- ship is far much matured than that of the UPND and this is what UPND, the party that claims to be more democrat- ic, has failed to do because for them, their president is one elected on tribal lines and cannot go to the convention,” Mr Mumbi said.
He said UPND’s claims that it would go for the convention before the 2021 elections was nothing new as it had been their song long before they lost the 2016 elections.
“Even if they pretend that they can go for the conven- tion, the truth of the matter is that they have a life party president and it becomes dif- ficult that they can talk about democracy when they can’t practice it. They have con- demned PF before that they have poor leadership but the people they have condemned are the ones showing matured leadership.
“We should congratulate the PF that it has always behaved decently and democratically in terms of running the party
even when they were in oppo- sition unlike the UPND which has kept on insulting the PF that they are not transparent and democratic,” he said.
He advised the UPND to emulate the PF so that as Zambians go to the polls in 2021, people could make a re- sounding decision as to which party was democratic.
“The UPND, which has claimed to have good leaders, has failed to go to the convention from the time Hakainde Hichilema was elected based on tribal politics. The danger is that in an event that they win elections, the constitution may be changed to make Mr. Hichilema life president,” he said.
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