Posts Tagged ‘Elections’

PRESIDENT RUPIAH BANDA’S MMD CONVENTION CLOSING SPEECH

Thursday, April 7th, 2011

Allow me to start by congratulating all of you delegates to this Convention for the success of this the 2nd extraordinary Convention of our Party the MMD.

I want to commend all of you for the peaceful and dignified manner you conducted yourselves here. It is a testimony to the democracy and belief in tolerance which our Party the MMD has always embraced.

Mr. Chairman, Fellow Delegates, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen:

Secondly, allow me to congratulate all of you who have been elected to our Party’s National Executive Council (NEC). As I explained in my opening speech, NEC is the brain of the Party. The success of the Party greatly depends on the performance of NEC.

Colleagues and friends, your election to these important party positions of great responsibility accords you a historic opportunity to serve not as masters, but as servants of the people. I advise you to be humble and exercise humility in the discharge of your duties. There is honour in the service of our people through hard work to achieve the objectives for which this party was formed 20 years ago. There is no pride or honour in laziness among all of us as leaders and servants of our people.

To our new NEC members:

As we congratulate and welcome you to the NEC, let me sound a warning and give advice to all of you.

First, the NEC is an organ of the Party. The Party is bigger than any individual. We are in NEC to serve the Party and not our individual interests. Any member of NEC who is not mindful that the party is bigger than them can not succeed in helping our Party. I repeat, the Party is greater than anyone individual and NEC members must recognise and accept this.

Second, we are headed into elections later this year and as members of NEC, total devotion to MMD is expected of all of us. Those who want to double deal with other parties, be warned that this will not be tolerated and disciplinary measures will be meted out.

Third, Mr. Chairman, is a warning to all NEC members regarding the habit of leaking deliberations of NEC to the public or press. Matters discussed in NEC are confidential and any member found leaking this information will be expelled. Remember that with the amendment to the Party Constitution adopted yesterday, NEC has the powers to expel erring members. We no longer have to wait five years for the Convention to do this.

Clearly, your job is cut out for you as you have to hit the ground running in view of the coming elections. The Party must be geared and ready to campaign and win the coming elections. This is your number one task.

To those of you who stood for the various positions but were not successful, let me say that you did not make a mistake to stand. You afforded the electoral college of our party choices. If it weren’t for you, there would have been no confirmation of democracy in our Party. Unlike some parties where the leadership is chosen by an individual, in our Party the members, repeat, members choose their leaders.

Now that elections are over, I urge all of us members of MMD to continue to treat each other as brothers and sisters and members of one family.

Our Party still needs all of us and I trust and believe that all of us will continue supporting it. Let us close ranks now as the battle, the political battle begins not within or among ourselves, but with the opposition.

Mr. Chairman, Fellow party Members:

The greatest gift that you members can your Party is to continue showing affection and love for each other in MMD. As I said in the opening speech, it is better to love than to hate. Today, I say for those of you who may have differed in whatever manner, it is better to forgive than to be vengeful. This is good for our Party the MMD and for our country, Zambia.

Let the spirit of oneness, the spirit of unity demonstrated at this Convention, be carried forward through the period of the campaign. With this spirit, we will surely win.

Mr. Chairman, Fellow Party Members:

Finally, I want to thank you all for supporting my candidature for the Presidency of the MMD and for endorsing me as your Presidential candidate in the 2011 Presidential and General elections.

I will work very hard to deliver what our Party aspires for but I will need everyone’s total support in this task. Allow me to stress the point that this is the time for the Party to move forward in unity in order to gain the electoral victory which we need to better serve our nation and people.

As we disperse and travel back to our homes, remember this is a campaign where we are all needed. Please, those in charge, ensure that drivers taking our people are careful and avoid over-speeding. We need everyone and can’t afford accidents.

In closing, I wish to pray for God’s mercies and love to be with you all as you travel back.

May God the Almighty bless the MMD.

May God bless our country, Zambia.

Thank you.

 

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MMD GOVERNMENT STAND ON 50%+1 IRKS CIVIC BODY

Monday, November 22nd, 2010

BY ZAMBIA NEWS FEATURES CORRESPONDENT

The Southern African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (SACCORD) says it is saddened by the decision of the MMD government to disregard the wishes and aspirations of the Zambian people over the constitution making process by rejecting key citizens’ demands such as the 50% plus one vote electoral formula.

“We are particularly disappointed that the government wants to use fake justifications for their decision not to allow the country use the 50% plus one vote system during the 2011 elections for a presidential candidate.

“The decision by the government is clearly aimed at keeping the MMD in power beyond the 2011 elections which we find dishonest, manipulative and an attempt to pre determine the outcome of the 2011 presidential elections,” says the organisation’s Communications Officer Obby Chibuluma.

The Civic Body explains iot strongly believes that the MMD wants to stay in power using underhand methods adding that  “Zambians must know them for whom they are following their decision over the 50% plus one vote formula.”

The MMD must know that the people of Zambia, in seeking the use of a majoritarian system wanted to prevent conflicts that have always arisen as a result of the way leaders have been elected into office since 1996.

The reasons advanced by the government over the 50% plus one vote formula cannot convince anyone and those in power must know that the people of Zambia know that the MMD is scared of losing the next elections and they want to employ underhand tactics to remain in power.

The same government, says Chibuluma, has hijacked the people’s constitution making process by firstly making it composed of loyalist of the MMD government and secondly by sending some of the clauses to a referendum which they knew that they would not hold before the 2011 elections. The actions of the government amount to deception and trickery.

“We believe that this government has not been honest over the constitution making process. We also believe that those in government are too desperate to retain power and have decided to use trickery in order to remain in power. This is the record level of manipulation of dishonesty on the part of this government,” he says.

SACCORD would like to tell the MMD that if they are to remain relevant to the people of Zambia, they need to ensure that they do the right things by ensuring that they respect the people of Zambia.

They must also begin to run an honest and transparent government. We also would like to let them know that Zambians fully understand their schemes to remain in power.

Zambians, the organisation says, also know that this government has never believed in genuine constitutional and electoral reforms. They also know that this government has people who are too desperate to remain in power and will do anything to maintain the power even through stealing and hijacking the people’s processes.

The people of Zambia fully supported the 50% plus one vote during the electoral reforms technical committee, Mung’omba Constitutional review Commission and the not so popular National Constitutional Conference hearings. We find it very strange that this government can have the audacity to disregard Zambians in this manner.

“This is the highest contempt against the people of Zambia this government has committed. Most of our people aspire for a conflict free post-election environment and viewed a popularly elected president as the only guarantee for this.” says Chibuluma.

SACCORD would like to call upon the people of Zambia to continue fighting for a genuinely people-driven constitution and ensure that those who chose to disrespect the wishes and aspirations of the Zambian people are made to pay for their dishonest. The leaders in government must be made to know that dishonest over public affairs will not go unpunished.

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MICHAEL SATA FORCED TO CANCEL US TRIP

Saturday, May 15th, 2010

*DELEGATION COMPOSITION RAISES EYEBROWS

By GERSHOM NDHLOVU

A TRIP that opposition PF president Michael Sata was to undertake to the United States, has been cancelled allegedly because of the composition of his delegation which did not please other party members as well as the UPND, the Pact partners.

Sources have told the Zambia News Features that when it became apparent that Sata would not travel to the United States, his party vice chairman, a Mr Mulenga was supposed to travel in his place, an arrangement which did not please the organisers, the Associations of Zambians in Atlanta (AZA) where he was to address Zambians resident there.

But UPND spokesman Charles Kakoma said he was not aware that Sata’s trip has been cancelled and said that if it was cancelled it was not because the UPND complained saying there could be other reasons for the cancellation.

Kakoma, however, disclosed that UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema was already in the United States and that if it was the same programme that the two leaders were going to, then the PF leader would travel.

A phone call to the PF leader, Sata’s mobile pone went unanswered.

Michael sata

PF leader Michael Sata

An e-mail from the organisers of the Atlanta leg of the trip obtained by the Zambia News Features read: “As per text I sent, Mr Sata will not be coming to Atlanta. I confirmed it when I spoke with him. He did however state, not to me though, that his party vice chairman Mr Mulenga would replace him as his emissary. In other words, he was specifically implying that the meetings will go on but with Mr Mulenga as his representative.

“I, therefore, made it clear to Mr Mulenga and his co-hosts that AZA, in its non-party capacity, was welcoming and accommodating Mr Sata as a national hero and leader, not as an opposition leader. His inability to travel defeats the whole purpose of the function we were supposed to have and reduces it to a mere PF party occasion, and at that point, after a discussion with my committee, we decided to cancel the Michael Sata dinner and advised Mr Mulenga to contact PF supporters in Atlanta for any other organisational help.”

The e-mail indicated that it is believed that after Sata and eight of the people who were to accompany him had already procured visas and paid airfares for the US trip, some factions within their inner circle questioned the composition of the delegation.

When Sata was confronted with the issue, he felt it politically unwise to travel with them but they allegedly complained that the hard fought for visas were already issued and the air tickets were non-refundable. With that predicament at hand, and the by-election loss in the Eastern Province, Sata told his delegation that he would not travel if they travelled too.

According to an electronic flier advertising a public meeting discussion at which Sata was to be the guest speaker, organised by the Community of Zambians in Chicago, he was supposed to address the theme of Zambia’s Strategic Vision for the Future which was to be held on May 20, 2010 at the Comfort Inns on Touhy Avenue in Des Plaines in Illinois.

AZA has already refunded the people who contributed money for the Atlanta function. It was, however, difficult to establish what alternative arrangements were made by the organisers of the Chicago to accommodate Mr Mulenga and his delegation.

Sata’s PF and another opposition party, the UPND have for the last 18 months come together in a pact in which they have been contesting by-elections as a combined force against the ruling MMD and hope to do so in the 2011 presidential, parliamentary and local government elections.

The rationale for the pact is that each time the two biggest opposition parties have contested elections against the ruling MMD, they have split votes giving advantage to the MMD which has been in power since 1991.

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