Former Presidential Affairs Minister and Kamfinsa lawmaker during the Levy Mwanawasa administration Webby Chipili made the application to the High Court Judge which was granted in his favour.
Mr Chipili said in an interview yesterday that he made an application to the High Court on behalf of other members because Dr Mumba’s convention was illegal. “We have not had any intraparty elections, there is no shortcut. We want everybody to participate because it is their party.
That being the case we want our friends in the other faction to stop their illegal convention,” Mr Chipili said. He said the court order was served before Dr Mumba’s vice president, Reverend Reuben Sambo early in the morning. However, Dr Mumba and New Hope MMD officials ignored it, instead opting to go ahead with the convention. Dr Mumba said, “The court order came too late. The good news is we finished our business of the convention by the time the injunction was brought to us by the police.
We didn’t have enough time to verify the authenticity of the injuction. So I want to assure you that what happened today will have no impact because our agenda is already completed.” Dr Mumba however said his lawyers will head to court to respond to the court order delivered before them. He said as far as he was concerned, he was elected MMD president at the same convention as he went unopposed.
Dr Mumba also said Mr Chipili was not a member of MMD and wondered why he wanted to halt the convention of a party he did not belong to. He said what happened yesterday at Lusaka’s Bonanza Resort sent a wrong message to the international community as the whole world was following the proceedings online.
