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By NATION REPORTER
THE MMD has claimed that it was in fact the UPND that had mooted the idea of forming an alliance with the Nevers Mumba political outfit which saw the two political parties sign a memorandum of understanding last week.
After a cross section of society and numerous people have bashed Dr Mumba for entering into an alliance with the UPND, many Zambians feel is outgoing, Bendel Philip, the MMD spokesperson has come to his defence saying it was actually ruling party which proposed the alliance.
But Gaston Sichilima, a long time senior MMD member is claiming Dr Mumba entered into the pact with UPND on his own accord as the decision was not subjected to a national congress as per requirement of the party over big decisions.
Speaking in an interview yesterday, Mr Philip said the MMD had lost a lot of territory and had been a target of the Patriotic Front (PF) hence the decision to find space in the UPND.
Mr Philip said now that MMD had entered into a pact with UPND, the party was over its worst fears of being annihilated, hoping it would now grow stronger with its affiliation to the ruling party.
“It is not true that president Nevers Mumba entered into an alliance with UPND for his personal benefit. Dr Mumba is bringing immense value to the UPND. As a matter of fact, it is the UPND which approached Dr Mumba with the proposal of forming an alliance. It is UPND which came up with the MoU that we signed as MMD,” Mr Philip said.
Mr Philip disclosed that the UPND had been pursuing Dr Mumba for a possible alliance for a long time, stating that going to bed with another political party required that ideologies of the two political parties were similar and in sync.
“UPND and MMD have similar ideologies. Remember our country is a democracy,” Mr Philip said.
But Mr Sichilima of the famous “Save MMD” faction claimed that Dr Mumba went into a pact with UPND on his ow without the blessing of the general membership which only happens at an extra-general conference.
Mr Sichilima said no one was against political alliances but they should be done within set rules which include consensus from the general membership.
“We want to participate in the running of the country and an alliance is supposed to benefit both parties but in our case, only Nevers Mumba is benefitting yet he has no authority to make unilateral decisions,” he said.
Mr Sichilima the UPND-MMD alliance had no blessings of the general membership of the former governing party which was at the helm of the country’s affairs for 20 years after unseating UNIP in 1991.
“This alliance between UPND and Dr Nevers Mumba has no blessings from the general MMD membership. It was his own decision which is against party rules. Can you imagine that one MMD member (name withheld) is going to participate in the Kawambwa by-election under UPND? So what sort of an alliance is this?” he wondered.
UPND advised to
