Africa-Press – Zambia. Having seats in Parliament and Councils is what makes any party strong. UPND strength in Parliament over the last 20 years in opposition was because they had guaranteed seats in Parliament, largely coming from Southern Province and others dotted in other provinces.
So the decision by the PF to legally defend the seats from being nullified is a noble cause the PF must continue to invest their money and energy on rather than investing funds and energies in talking about organising a party convention in hasty. Of what good is a party if it spent huge sums of money just to put Hon Mundubile or Hon Kambwili at the helm of the party when parliamentary and local government seats are being lost or a party that cannot win a by-election at a time when the cost of fuel and electricity will cause discontent among ordinary Zambians?
PF, despite having had control of Parliament, resisted the temptation to change the Electoral Act in order to make easier for courts to nullify targeted seats of the then opposition UPND. They would have abused the Courts to punish UPND MPs. The PF could also have used Speaker Matibini to do what Speaker Nelly Mutti has done .i.e. creating an artificial vacancy in Parliament while, laughably, not declaring the seats vacant. The PF restrained itself from going this route.
Former Speaker Matibni, who was found wanting by the Court in the Kambwili and GBM case, somehow knew the limits of his powers under the Standing Orders which regulate Parliament that he had no power to push the 48 UPND MPs beyond 30 days provided in the law.
Am sure the PF, while in control of the house, would have been happy to have had Speaker Matibini indefinitely suspend the 48 UPND MPs. But that would have killed our democracy and violated our Constitution.
Anyway, going forward, the two factions in PF vying for Presidency should look at the bigger picture and refocus their monies and energies from wanting to lead the party to Kabwata Constituency and reading the mode among Zambians on how they rate PF before even thinking of holding the so called convention.
Essentially, the same people who attended the last convention early this year, the same leadership that made fatal decisions on adopted candidates would be the same people meeting at such a caucus. The only difference is that the convention would not be divided by these two factions but everything remains the same as the last convention.
So, it would be good sign of leadership for these leaders to temporary halt their presidential ambition and work together to solely focus on winning a seat, crafting the right and sellable messages for the people of Kabwata Constituency than thinking of themselves at the helm of the party.
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