By SIMON MUNTEMBA
NEVERS Mumba is an illegal MMD president and we are actually appealing to the Constitutional Court against the Lusaka High Court ruling that declared him dully elected leader, the Operation Save MMD has said.
And the Operation Save MMD has unanimously resolved to support the candidature of President Edgar Lungu in the August general elections.
Operation Save MMD national secretary, Raphael Nakachinda announced that the MMD national consultative meeting held in Lusaka on Saturday with delegates drawn from all 10 provinces unanimously resolved that the alliance with the Patriotic Front (PF) must continue as agreed in 2016.
He said among the delegates that attended the national consultative meeting were senior MMD members, former cabinet ministers and ambassadors in the MMD governments, as well as, current MMD members of parliament namely Peter Phiri, Howard Kunda, Maxwell Kabanda, councillors and council chairpersons.
Mr Nakachinda said the consultative meeting reaffirmed the continuity of the alliance and its support of the candidature of President Lungu in this year’s elections.
“We give a mandate to President Lungu to deploy our Members of Parliament, our councilors, our council chairpersons, MMD structures and the leadership to be deployed in a manner to make the campaigns effective to attain the desired results of achieving more than 50 percent+1 in the first round as well as to participate in the general elections,” Mr Nakachinda said.
Mr Nakachinda also disclosed that it was strongly resolved that since the former President Rupiah Banda has been so instrumental in the working relationship with PF both in 2015 and 2016 in supporting President Lungu, they will engage him through a committee for his blessings as they continue their working relationship with PF.
He further announced that within the next few days, the Operation Save MMD teams will be sent in all the provinces to go and engage their structures to prepare them for the elections and implementation of those resolutions.
Meanwhile, Mr Nakachinda said Dr Mumba’s sham convention must be stopped at all costs because it was against the provisions of the MMD constitution.
He said Dr Mumba was an illegal MMD president whose mandate expired in 2016 and that they were appealing against the High Court ruling to the Concourt.
“We reminded ourselves that since we held an all-inclusive convention in 2016, through legal technicalities the party was granted to one individual Nevers Mumba which we had since challenged by way of an appeal as well as a petition before the constitutional court which matters have not yet been decided,” he said.
He added, “It is painful today that a party once so mighty fell prey to a wolf in sheep skin, Dr Mumba whose political career depends on the death of our party.”
He another directed all members of MMD not to participate in what he described as a ‘sham convention’ either remotely or by WhatsApp or zoom set by Dr Mumba.
He said calling for a convention by Dr Mumba was clearly against article 60 of the MMD constitution which states that firstly there must be lower organ elections from branch, ward, constituency, district, and province before a convention is called.
Efforts to get a comment from Dr Mumba proved futile by press time.
