STOP LECTURING THE DELEGATES ON WHO TO ENDORSE, LET ALL POSITIONS BE CONTESTED & THE BEST WIN AT ALL LEVELS !
Happy Easter Sunday , my UPND family.
For the sake of new members, I wish to bring thei brief history for their knowledge and memory to the old members on the democratic practices that were there in the beginning.
Before the 2001 general elections, the UPND had convention in which the late Anderson Mazoka and all able party members alike went about in that General Assembly in to talk to the delegates and followed the democratically laid down procedures to win the confidence of the UPND’s electoral college in all positions. There was no one who was barred to contest any position.
After his passing, the then acting party president Mr.Sakwiba Sikota and his Nationa Management Committee worked hard to guarantee a smooth and democratic convention on the 26th to 27th May 2006. I must say without any iota of fear that this convention to date is one to remember.
They allowed whoever wanted to contest any position. They did so without fear of being challenged by anyone within or outside the National Management Committee and party structures.
There was no guided democracy in which the convention was to be held other than the procedures as elaborated in the constitution.
I Matyola Innocent was the president of HH’s media manager during this time. I went with him to meet the delegates in their various locations in different lodges in Lusaka, to whom he freely campaigned and delivered his message to gain their confidence.
Mr. Baldwin Nchite did the same, and so did the then acting president, Mr.Sakwiba Sikota, whose leadership organized this memorable convention.
This is the type of convention we expect and not the shameful lectures we are hearing where our delegates are currently being threatened not to challenge anyone in any position of the current office bearers most of whom have failed the party.
How can tue grown up men ans women called the structures be told to come to Lusaka , show no ambition but to endorse their fellow adults like bafoons who have no ambitions only to endorse many of our failed colleagues like the party has no capable people who can do far much better than many of our current office bearers who for close to 5 years have never cared for this party or the warfare of the same party structures whom they are now fooling as they give them small amounts of cash and as they lie to them for things they never gave out or shared the past years since 2022 due to their greediness.
Personally, I am happy that our leadership has shown willingness to adhere to our national constitutional requirement to hold a convention but ,our leadership should not reduce the bar of democratic practices by allowing an entrenchment of tactics that are synonymous to small boys games because we need a bigger endorsement in this year’s general elections than the 2021. This calls for the best men and women not cowrads.
It will be a very big embarrassment to all of us genuine UPND members to be on record that ,firstly, we were hesitant to hold the convention for unknown reasons, and that secondly we should shamelessly get people to come and gather in Lusaka to endorse some of this century’s worst political failures in some leadership positions in the vast leadership structures of our party.
This is not the democratic process that our party practiced . These are actions of cowardice and petty intimidation of our delegates.
These things no longer work in the modern world where people read between lines and decide on merits way before the general elections .
The convention is a time when everyone who believes that they can do better than any person among the current office bearers should freely exercise their democratic right and prove in clear messages to the delegates what they will do different or better than the current office bearers without of the current party officials standing in their party’s democratic path. Those who participated to impoverished the party members and our structures don’t expect the same people you never favored not to challenge or return you at whatever level you may be.
This convention is mandate renewal for all the office bearers. If we make mistakes by returning people who have no love for the party , the next 5 years will be worse than hell.
The delegates also need to air their disappointments with many of the current office bearers by voting out those who have failed to add political value to our party without any threats from anybody.
There should NEVER BE any actions or lectures suggesting that certain positions are preserved for this or that one because if this was the case, the UPND would not have lived this far
Winners must win on merit in that there is a general election not long from now in which there will be no such thing as guided democracy as purported because people will vote based on how they have been treated by their own colleagues at all levels in our party.
Let us be smart and allow democracy to prevail.
Let winners win with dignity and honor and the looser loose honorably. Let the best men and women lead at all levels in our
party. This is the democracy we chose.
This is the technological era, and communication has been made simpler to the extent that we all know what is going on in real time anywhere.
It will also be in the interest of democracy that we revert back our constitution to what it was before the amendments. The current constitution has done more harm than good to the party as collective bargaining and decision-making is no longer in the hands of the party masses or its highest organ , the NMC but with with the president which is dangerous for democracy and examples are there to show where people can be put and removed at will without the input of anyone.
I pray that our leadership heed to this simple message as it will help to unify the party as we head into the general elections rather than to risking an inevitable split if we dont handle these concerns maturely.
At this point, we all need to sit and agree on various issues that ha e caused divisions and neglecting the structures and moving as one mature entity.
Happy Easter Sunday, and God bless our leaders and all the party members.
Matyola Innocent