PF mocks UPND over ‘substandard’ intra-party polls

THE description of the UPND Copperbelt provincial elections as below acceptable standards by its members is a clear indication that the party is undemocratic and run with an 'iron fist,’ Copperbelt Patriotic Front (PF) has charged.

PF Copperbelt Youth chairman Don Mungulube said the UPND and other opposition parties must learn to hold credible intra-party elections in order to uphold democratic principles within the party.

He said the opposition should not hold elections whose rules were aimed at getting rid of certain candidates.

Mr Mungulube was reacting to media reports that some losing candidates in the just ended UPND Copperbelt provincial elections described the elections as below acceptable standards.

Some UPND members on the Copperbelt charged that some senior party leaders were putting their personal interests before that of the party.

In an interview in Kitwe yesterday, Mr Mungulube, said it was surprising that the UPND which had been calling the ruling PF and President Edgar Lungu as dictators, was failing to hold credible intra-party elections.

"They call PF dictators, but the party of dictators held a very credible elections, while them who claim to be democratic, their elections were a sham. That UPND election has demoralised many of its elections,’’ Mr Mungulube.

Mr Mungulube said the UPND had always been undemocratic as evidenced by its failure to hold elections in the past until now when the 2016 constitutional provisions forced them to start holding elections.

But newly-elected UPND Copperbelt provincial Information Publicity Secretary Lawrence Mwanza said the complaints were not genuine and that it was normal to complain after defeat in an election to get sympathy from the supporters.