Lifwekelo blasts undemocratic UPND
THE United Party for National Development (UPND) is an undemocratic party which greedily amended its constitution in 2015 prior to the Presidential elections just to suit the desire of Hakainde Hichilema to remain at the helm indefinitely, former UPND deputy spokesperson Edwin Lifwekelo has disclosed.
And Mr Lifwekelo has urged Members of Parliament to support a private motion moved by Chifubu Constituency MP, Frank Ng’ambi that seeks to limit the number of times a Presidential candidate can contest if intra party democracy is to be promoted.
Mr Lifwekelo, a PF senior member told the Daily Nation in an interview that the UPND lacks intra party democracy because its president Mr Hichilema has absolute powers like a king.
Mr Lifwekelo charged that the UPND leader has exhibited serious dictatorial tendencies from the time he grabbed the party presidency from Mr Sakwiba Sikota following the demise of founding president, Anderson Kambela Mazoka.
He accused Mr Hichilema of having changed the UPND constitution in 2015 using gullible members and declared himself life UPND leader and sole presidential candidate despite suffering five consecutive defeats.
“There is no democracy in UPND because even HH is in the office illegally, he is at the helm of the party by virtue of amending the constitution prior to the 2015 Presidential elections just to accommodate him.
“I was part of UPND and I know that the constitution which restricted office bearers to two terms (10 years) was amended in 2015 just to accommodate Hakainde because if it was not changed, he would not have stood, but using his few fellow selfish accomplices, he used the short cut instead of a convention to cling on to power,” Mr Lifwekelo narrated. Mr Lifwekelo said Mr Hichilema retains the powers to appoint all the UPND office bearers starting from the vice presidents to the lowest position in the party which is not a case with some democratic parties.
He said political parties must exercise democracy by holding regular, free and fair elections through elective convention.
He said Mr Hichilema is “wamuyayaya” (lifelong serving leader) in UPND adding that this was an injury to the democratic dispensation that Zambia is fighting so hard to build.
Mr Hichilema has been at the helm of the opposition party for almost 12 years after taking over following the demise of its founder and leader Anderson Mazoka in 2006.
Meanwhile, Mr Lifwekelo has called on all MPs for bipartisan support on a motion moved by Mr Ng’ambi that limit the number of times one may attempt to contest elections.