KELVIN Fube Bwalya says he is not moved when he hears PF senior officials saying President Edgar Lungu is the party’s sole presidential candidate.
Bwalya, who is known by the initials KBF, insists that President Lungu should not participate at the ruling party’s forthcoming general conference.
He reiterates that his purported expulsion from the PF was done by “an illegal central committee.”
Bwalya, who featured on Muvi TV’s The Assignment programme on Saturday night, is eying the PF presidency.
“I’m not moved because I know the PF constitution,” Bwalya answered when asked how he feels about endorsements of President Lungu.
He refused that he would be contesting the party presidency with President Lungu.
“No! The President shouldn’t be there. The President’s candidature [at the party general conference] will be flying in the teeth of the Republican Constitution,” he said. “Remember [that] whoever is elected at the general conference is a flag-bearer for the PF to be their candidate.”
Bwalya asserted that: “the President for me cannot stand.”
“He has been sworn-in twice and I have argued this position categorically. The President must not be there as a candidate. Ndepapata (I plead),” Bwalya noted. “My older brother must step aside. I have never wanted to challenge ba President Lungu…. [But] any candidate muleteni (bring them). President Lungu is my older brother and he has done his two terms; balekeni baleya (let him go).”
He insisted that President Lungu has been sworn-in twice – January 2015 and September 2016.
“Calipwa (it’s over). Let him go and enjoy his retirement. Why are we trying to cling to a man like he’s the only one who can save us? Let ba Lungu help us and with his help we can still win,” Bwalya said. “That’s what we did when we made him candidate; we helped him. Kuitemwa ukwashani (what sort of self-centredness is this)? You can’t help others? He has done his bit. Seven, eight years in that office is too much.”
About his perceived expulsion from the PF, Bwalya, a lawyer, talked about one legal principle.
“If somebody who has authority to inflict disciplinary charges against you, let alone punishment against you, does that and you appeal, by implication you are affirming that this person has authority,” he said. “[But] I have not even bothered responding to the letter of expulsion which was delivered one year after. The only person that I recognise in the central committee is the President. But even for him, we elected president Edgar Chagwa Lungu in 2014. He stood in two elections and he won both elections….”
Bwalya pointed out that there was a vacancy in the PF presidency.
“That is why I announced my candidature. By fact, he (Lungu) is president but by law he is not. That is why we are going for a general conference to go and elect a president; the party has no president,” he noted. “The President knows these principles – he is a lawyer like me. He is de facto president of the party.”
He further stressed that he knew the PF constitution like the back of his hand.
Bwalya added that half of the people that purportedly expelled him: “don’t even read the PF constitution.”
“They don’t understand it! There is nothing wrong that I have done [to merit being expelled],” Bwalya said. “All I have shown is confidence, courage, ambition and determination to push an agenda that I want to be president of this country. There is nothing wrong with that.”
He also cautioned that time was not on the PF’s side.
“It’s not about me [but] about the party putting its house in order as the ruling party,” Bwalya noted, adding that he was a member of the PF by heart.
“I don’t flip-flop. I’m a very principled person. If I decide to leave an association, you’ll hear me calling the press and I’ll tell you.”
He underscored that he would also have to exercise his right at the PF general conference.
Interviewer Andrew Mwansa told him that: “clearly you cannot [contest the PF presidency], under the current circumstances.”
Bwalya responded that: “okay, let’s wait and see.”
“That’s all I can tell you,” he said. “I’m not challenging my expulsion but I’m just refusing it. The people who sat to expel me have no jurisdiction. They know [that] they are illegitimate. If it’s about denying me going to the national conference, I still retain my right.”
Bwalya further indicated that the PF constitution tells him that: “if we can’t resolve issues, my doors are open.”
“Then I will tell the court what I know. Then I’ll speak in court and will be wasting more time in court,” Bwalya said. “I have been saying ‘let’s talk.’ I’m an open book. I’m not antagonistic. No! But don’t think I have no options. We can waste time in court, if we need to, until my issues are resolved.”
He also noted that the PF constitution says: “if I want to stand for any position in the party, including the presidency, all I have to do is a day before I should tell the secretary general.”
“And I’ll do that. Let him (PF secretary general Davies Mwila) say no and then they will hear from me,” said Bwalya. “I’m a member, as far as I’m concerned. Whatever decisions they have taken are illegal.”