By STEPHEN KAPAMBWE –
The political landscape on the local scene has of late become somewhat confusing to the common man.
Of particular concern is the rate at which political parties are disintegrating into factions due to internal party disagreements.
Latest developments have affected the ruling Patriotic Front (PF). This follows the election of Commerce Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Miles Sampa as the party’s new leader barely hours after an earlier conference elected Defence minister Edgar Lungu as successor to President Michael Sata.
Mr Lungu was declared unopposed on Saturday after his opponents in the race to the party’s presidency allegedly failed to attend the meeting which was called by Acting President Guy Scott at Mulungushi Rock of Authority in Kabwe.
But the results that were purported to have been in favour of Mr Lungu, who is Justice Minister, were declared null and void by Dr Guy Scott who charged that the election failed to adhere to party procedure.
Dr Scott subsequently called a second vote which elected Mr Sampa.
However, having already been voted for, Mr Lungu proceeded to accept his election and was presented with an adoption certificate by PF National chairperson Inonge Wina.
Mr Lungu went on to assume the office of the PF party presidency and announced the dismissal of PF Acting Secretary General Bridget Atanga and her Deputy Anthony Kasolo.
He also suspended party chairperson for Elections Sylvia Masebo for indiscipline.
But how will the PF proceed with two party presidents? Will this mean the disintegration of the ruling party?
Aside from the PF, the opposition MMD is now firmly divided in two factions represented by two presidential candidates both of whom have refused to reconsider their positions.
MMD party leader Nevers Mumba declared himself as his party’s sole presidential candidate representing the MMD in the January 20 election.
Dr Mumba launched his official campaigns for the presidency in Muchinga Province while former President Rupiah Banda launched his official campaign for the presidency on the MMD ticket at the party secretariat in Lusaka.
Mr Banda’s presidential ambitions have been supported by the MMD National Executive Committee (NEC) which has since mandated him to run for the presidency.
It is yet to be seen whether these two factions will reconcile given that they stand to be disqualified by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ should they insist on running on the same party.
The woes of the MMD have deepened further by after the party lost support from eight of its own members of Parliament who have preferred to back rival United Party for National Development (UPND) and its leader Hakainde Hichilema.
The eight were led by Lunte MMD Member of Parliament Felix Mutati.
MMD has since threatened to take disciplinary action against the parliamentarians.
The oldest party in the country, the United Party for National Independence (UNIP) is equally rocked by internal confusion.
The party which led Zambia through the Independence struggle in 1964 after which it ruled for 27 years under first Republican President Dr Kenneth Kaunda has been consumed in wrangles following the formation of a faction opposed to party leader Tilyenji Kaunda.
The faction christened ‘UNIP Active’ led by former UNIP member of the Central Committee Beatrice Kayuni said consultations were under way as regards its choice of a presidential candidate to run in the January 20 presidential poll.
UNIP Active publicity secretary Stanley Chinoi told reporters in Lusaka this week that his faction was not in support of Mr Kaunda’s candidature in the presidential election.
The faction blames Mr Kaunda for UNIP’s relegation to the shadows since its left power owing to what opponents of Mr Kaunda believe is poor leadership.
The party is no longer the forceful entity it was during the independence struggle.
Mr Chinoi said UNIP Active would ensure that the party remains relevant to the current political landscape in the country as well as to politics at continental and global level.
But UNIP Lusaka province information and publicity secretary Charles Mwelwa described UNIP Active as an illegal wing.
He warned those that had been expelled from UNIP against indulging in unlawful actions aimed at putting the name of the former ruling party into disrepute.
The UPND and the Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) are among opposition political parties hoping to capitalise on the internal wrangles facing the PF.
They also hope the confusion engulfing the MMD – which is one of the influential political parties in the country with representation in parliamentary – would work to their advantage.
Other opposition parties taking part in the poll are National Restoration Party (NAREP), the Heritage Party (HP), and Forum for Democratic Alternatives (FDA); the Peter Sinkamba led Green Party and the Christian Democratic Party (CDP).
The executive organs of the UPND, FDD, UNIP, FDA, NAREP, HP and CDP have had no trouble endorsing their party leaders to run in the election.
Naturally, the UPND has settled for Mr Hichilema, a man who has had to fight off the tribal politics tag lamped on him by opponents who believed that the UPND was a regional party that had its stronghold in Southern Province.
But Mr Hichilema – fondly known by his initials ‘HH’ – has in the recent past spearheaded the party in a number of parliamentary by-election victories that have earned the party more seats in Parliament.
The victories have also helped the party achieve popularity outside Southern Province.
A case in point is the recent victory the party secured in the September, 2014 Solwezi Central parliamentary by-election where it scooped the seat once held by an MMD parliamentarian.
The FDD has settled on Ms Nawakwi, a leader who has defied accessions that a woman can never make a good leader.
Ms Nawakwi is the only woman that is running in the upcoming presidential election.
In her political and public life, Ms Nawakwi has shown determination and demonstrated her ability to be a leader.
Her educational background in economics and business management from University of London Imperial College definitely provides the perfect backdrop for a resume of one who became the first female minister of Finance (1998) in the whole of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.
She assumed the FDD leadership after the late General Christon Tembo retired from active politics at a dramatic party convention in Kabwe.
She has served as FDD leader since April, 2005 after starting off as the party’s secretary general in 2001 before she assumed the vice presidency.
She held cabinet portfolios in the ministries of Agriculture, Food & Fisheries; Energy & Water Development; State for Energy & Water Development and Finance.
Contrary to the opinions of her male opponents, Ms Nawakwi believes time is ripe for a woman to lead Zambia.
Layer Elias Chipimo is running on the NAREP ticket.
The FDA is fielding its leader Dr Ludwig Sondashi, the Green Party is running with Mr Sinkamba and Dr Danny Pule is on the CDP ticket.
The New Revolution Party has announced that it will contest the presidency under its leader Cosmo Mumba.
With the PF, MMD and UNIP caught in the infighting quagmire, it is yet to be seen how the January 20 elections will proceed given that political parties barely have two weeks prior to the filing in of nomination papers by all contesting presidential candidates.
The ECZ has set December 17th, 18th and 19th as dates for filing in of nominations.
Recently, the Zambia Electoral Alliance (ZEA) urged political parties to follow party constitutions in dealing with internal party matters such as the nomination of candidates that are supposed to take part in the fourth-coming presidential election.
Alliance Spokesperson Guess Nyirenda advised the parties against abrogating their own rules when dealing with internal party issues, warning that such actions were recipe for anarchy and violence within political parties as well as in the country as a whole.
“ZEA is particularly calling upon the ruling PF to realize that ignoring their own laid down party rules during their search for the successor to the late President is recipe for anarchy and violence,” Mr Nyirenda noted.
He also appealed to the MMD to amicably resolve the issue of who contests the presidential election, saying both the PF and the MMD should conform to party guidelines and procedure.
He appealed to stakeholders to ensure that they play a meaningful role in ensuring peace and tranquillity in the country.
The alliance is a consortium of civil society organisations namely, the Anti-Voter Apathy Project (AVAP), the Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP), Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia, Operation Young Vote (OYV), Southern Africa Centre For the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (SACCORD) and Zambia National Women’s Lobby (ZNWL).
Events giving rise to dissension and a lack of democracy within political parties have long been subject of discussion by members of the public who have been alarmed at the levels of intolerance within political parties when it comes to internal democracy.
Such dissensions once threatened the PF when Kasama Central Member of Parliament Geoffrey Mwamba, who was then serving in the ministry of Defense, started a campaign of endorsing late President Michael Sata as the party’s sole presidential candidate in the 2016 general elections.
Differences emerged in the ensuing discourse with some PF members saying it was not necessary to endorse Mr Sata while others felt those opposed to the endorsements where against the candidature of Mr Sata.
It took President Sata to curtail the endorsements that had degenerated into acts of violence.
Mr Sata said the PF was a democratic party that allowed anyone with leadership ambitions to express themselves publicly.
“As you are all aware, his Excellency President Michael Chilufya Sata has today, 16th September 2013, challenged all those with Presidential ambitions to come out in the open. He further directed that sole candidacy endorsements should come to an end,” Mr Mwamba said when asked to comment about Mr Sata’s statement.
Calls for the PF in particular to promote peace within the party and in the country were on the lips of those who spoke at and after President Sata’s funeral.
The church mother bodies and the civil society movements have warned that political parties, especially the ruling PF, risked causing confusion in the country if they failed to manage internal processes that threatened to develop into the full-fledged factions that could destabilise peace in the country.
At the special mass preceding the burial of late Mr Sata, Lusaka Archbishop Telesphore Mpundu appealed to politicians to help unite the country by avoiding non-divisive campaigns even within their parties.
But the propensity for power within political parties has become so high that people are willing to challenge party constitutions and possibly change them in their attempts to gain advantage.
The results are divisive campaigns that have given rise to factions eating at the sole of not only the PF, MMD and UNIP, but the nation as a whole.