MMD-UPND meet to discuss

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 15:33:48 +0000

UPND president Hakainde Hichilema says the UPND/MMD working group would soon reach consensus on which party will contest the Mufumbwe Constituency by-election as opposed to people suggesting that discussions between the two parties have stalled.

Mr. Hichilema said that speculations going on that the two parties had failed to reach consensus on who should contest the seat were incorrect and uncalled for.

He said both MMD and UPND were determined and committed to working together in order to strengthen unity and the opposition ahead of the by-election.

Mr. Hichilema said that no official communication had been issued to state which party would contest the seat as discussions were still going on.

“We have a small team that we have out in place to look at that issue and it is our hope that soon the people of Mufumbwe will be availed with a candidate who will fully be supported by both parties,” he said.

Mr. Hichilema described the attempts to divide the opposition over the Mufumbwe seat by the PF as baseless and uncalled for.

And Mr. Hichilema has confirmed that both the MMD and the UPND had a caucus meeting over President Michael Sata’s speech in parliament last week on Friday.

“Yes I can confirm that our Members of Parliament had a meeting with their colleagues from the MMD at the (MMD) secretariat where they discussed among other things the speech by Mr. Sata in Parliament last week.

That speech was hollow and lacks Presidential etiquette. There is nothing our Members will debate and we asked them as a party to meet and see which direction they should take when it comes to debating the speech,” he said.

Mr. Hichilema said that President Sata had missed another chance to inspire the people of Zambia by giving governments policy on poverty reduction, “unemployment, education and health as well as road infrastructure development. The President failed to give direction on how Zambia will run in the next one years.”

The Members of Parliament who attended the meeting said that President Sata’s written speech to parliament was diluted with the verbatim speech he made to the National Assembly last week and that would not endorse that.

“We have resolved that we shall not support and debate the speech because there is nothing to debate. It is full of insults, drama and uncoordinated and contradicting activities. Our people did not vote for us here to sweep such issues under the carpet and we shall make out position known in parliament today,” an MMD MP said.