Lubinda’s appointment as PF veep misplaced, says Mwanajiti

THE appointment of Given Lubinda as PF vice president at a time when the party needs to rebrand is a foul, political activist Ngande Mwananjiti has said.

Mr Mwananjiti said Mr Lubinda was an everyday face for the PF during the campaign period hence some members may not be happy with him at the helm.

“PF made a mistake to appointment Given Lubinda as vice president, instead the

Central Committee should have come up with a caretaker committee to oversee party affairs in the interim,” he said.

He said following the electoral defeat to the UPND, and the subsequent announcement by former President Edgar Lungu of his intention not to continue as party leader, the PF needed to put its house in order.

Mr Mwanajiti said Mr Lubinda was too visible during the general election campaigns, and therefore it was possible that while some people liked him, other did not agree with politics.

“The danger is that Mr Lubinda, though he might be good for the position of party vice president, not all PF members have accepted him, so my advice is instead of making these appointments, it’s better if they had come up with an interim committee of leaders to oversee the affairs of the party,” he said.

Mr Mwanajiti said the appointment of Mr Lubinda did not complied with constitution provision on internal democracy.

He said as a former ruling party, it was important for the PF to embrace internal democracy or risk going into extinction.

He said it was too early for the opposition PF to start thinking of going to the convention to elect new top leadership because the party was still in state of confusion following the heavy loss to the UPND.

Mr Mwanajiti said the former ruling party was still in turmoil and should accept that it lost power and now in opposition, or they should forget ever bouncing back to power.