No end to Banda's woes after by-election rout

LUSAKA, Sunday

A split is looming in Zambia’s governing party over whether or not to hold national convention next year to elect the president and national executive.

Clear divide has emerged between members of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) supporting the holding of the convention and those advocating a postponement until after the 2011 tripartite (presidential, parliamentary and local government) elections.

Zambian President Rupiah Banda, who assumed the position of acting president of the MMD after the death of Levy Mwanawasa, has challenged party members demanding the holding of the convention to resign instead of causing unrest in the governing party – which last week suffered a humiliating defeat in a by-election.

MMD came to power in 1991 after the reintroduction of multiparty politics.

“Don’t pretend to be a member of the MMD and at the same time you are being used by its enemies to create unrest in the MMD, because when the hour will arrive, and the MMD decides to remove you, those people who are cheating (you) will not come out and protect you,” President Banda warned.

President Banda was not categorical on whether the convention would go ahead.

“We have to look at ourselves, we have to decide when and how we are going to the convention and if we are going to the convention,” he said.

Mr George Mpombo, who resigned as President Banda’s Defence minister in July, and Mr Ng’andu Magande, who Mr Banda sacked as Finance minister, have been the key proponents for the MMD to go ahead with the convention next year, amidst opposition from the President’s allies.

Supporters of 72-year-old Banda, a veteran politician and diplomat in the 27-year rule of first president Kenneth Kaunda’s UNIP, want him to be the sole candidate for the MMD presidency and presidential candidate in the 2011 elections.

Majority members of the MMD’s national executive committee (NEC) have endorsed the postponement of the convention and President Banda’s sole candidacy.

Analysts here say NEC officials are opposed to the convention for fear of losing their positions.

Mr Magande, a NEC official, who lost to Mr Banda as party presidential candidate ahead of last year’s elections and a contender for the MMD presidency, insisted that the governing party held conventions every five years since its formation in 1991 and party members would not allow President Banda to change that democratic pattern.

Amidst accusations that he was turning MMD into undemocratic UNIP, President Banda argued: “I am a great believer in democracy…”

Mr Mpombo and Mr Magande – MMD parliamentarians – have accused President Banda of abrogating the party constitution through his tactics to postpone the convention under the pretext that the party had no funds.