MILES HAS JOINED UPND
…Matero seat will soon be vacant – Lusaka based Lawyer
Lusaka, Tuesday, October 31, 2023 (Smart Eagles)
Patriotic Front – PF member Celestine Mambula Mukandila who is optimistic that he will soon be Matero Member of Parliament says it is becoming clearer than the seat he has for long been eying will soon be vacant.
This comes amid the confusion in the PF that many stakeholders believe is being sponsored by the state.
A brief background to the matter is that a while ago, Matero MP Miles Sampa was expelled from the mighty PF.
The party notified the national assembly about Mr Sampa’s expulsion, seeking that the Matero seat be declared vacant, as required under the Constitution.
Despite being expelled, Mr Sampa went ahead and declared himself party president after holding his so called convention which many have rubbished and said it was illegal.
And appearing on Millennium TV yesterday, Mr Mukandila said Mr Sampa is being sponsored by UPND.
“Matero is my home. It is a project that we decided to embark on as far back as 2016. As it stands right now, it looks more than certain that Matero seat will be very vacant because we have seen that our colleague has decided to join the UPND as it is,” he said.
“It is clear that with the behavior being portrayed by the state currently and the state police, you should be able to tell that whatever has been happening, all the confusion that you have been seeing in the country, I don’t want to say PF because the Patriotic Front is a national party…it has been as a result of the protection coming from the ruling elites and as well as the UPND.”
He has also accused Sampa of having joined the UPND.
The Lusaka lawyer expressed his shock at the rate the Speaker of the National Assembly has delayed to declare the Matero Seat vacant.
“It is clear that the instructions are coming from the UPND government and you would actually say this individual has joined the UPND. A letter was served to the speaker of the national assembly indicating that this member has been expelled from the party and as per tradition and as per rules of the national assembly, where the sponsoring party decides to expel a member, it means that particular seat falls vacant. And that is the provision of the constitution,” he said.
“Surprising enough, up to now we are still waiting for the speaker to make a decision as to when they will declare that seat vacant. It is extremely new to the country to see that delay after it was clearly made by the Patriotic Front, a letter was dropped to the Clerk of the National Assembly to indicate to say our colleague has been expelled from the party. But up to now we are shocked to see that no action has been taken so far.”
He warned that “this is where the Zambian people will start now questioning the integrity of the institutions of government. The legislature today is at test and the test that is there today is that can we start doing the right thing as the legislature. Can we do things in accordance with the constitution? All the MPs swear to protect and defend the constitution of the Republic of Zambia, including the Speaker of the National Assembly.”
“The delay may produce insinuations such as there is an invisible hand that may be delaying… an illegal and un authorized election that Miles decided to have at Mulungushi where we saw a battalion of police officers protecting that place and it was very untraditional because as a matter of fact, we had a visiting Head of State.”