DIVISIONS ROCK UPND

in the United Party for National Development (UPND) in Western Province have deepened with members predicting the demise of the party if it continued to adopt unpopular Members of Parliament (MPs) who only defected to the UPND in 2016.

The MPs who were cited are Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane, (Liuwa constituency), Geoffrey Lungwangwa (Nalikwanda) and Dr Chris Kaila (Lukulu constituency).

But Dr Musokotwane told the Daily Nation yesterday that people who were propagating such causes were party opponents who failed to beat him during the party’s adoption process.

Over 1,700 UPND members, including district and constituency officials, in Western Province last month resigned from the opposition political party to join the governing Patriotic Front (PF).

A UPND senior member in the province who sought anonymity told the Daily Nation that the party would continue to lose support if its provincial chairperson, Njamba Musanga was not immediately dismissed.

Mr Musanga is accused of supporting the MPs with the UPND management committee in the province recently passing a vote of no confidence in him.

Mr Musanga was accused of incompetence and failure to organize and mobilize the party in the province.

The source said it was not a secret that the MPs were not the people’s preferred candidates but were only imposed on the people due to their strong ties with the provincial chairperson.

He said electorates in the province had consequently resorted to vote for independent candidates in the 2021 elections.

“There are some MPs that we will not accept and are just imposed on us people like Prof Lungwangwa and Dr Musokotwane are not original UPND members,” the source said.

But Dr Musokotwane who held the seat on the MMD ticket until his defection to the UPND said it was impossible for some people to claim that he was unpopular when he got 80% of the votes in the 2016 elections.

He said those that had decided to stand as independent MPs were free to do so and he was ready to face them in an election. Dr Musokotwane defended Mr Musanga adding that it was not an individual decision to adopt someone as a party’s candidate for MP.

“Those are just lies how can Musanga decide who should stand as MP. Those who are saying that are just detractors and political opponents within the party because I was supported at grass root level, district, provincial and national level,” he claimed

Dr Musokotwane claimed that he enjoyed the peoples support in his constituency and rubbished talks of unpopularity.