MILES, GBM AND KAMBWILI DON’T QUALIFY TO CONTEST PF PRESIDENCY – FORMER PF SG MWILA
…says party wants to amend constitution to enable them to contest the presidency as they are currently ineligible
Monday, 17 April 2023 (Smart Eagles)
FORMER PF secretary general Davies Mwila says Miles Sampa, Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba – GBM and Dr. Chishimba Kambwili do not qualify to contest the party presidency because they haven’t been members for five continuous years.
And Mwila says former PF deputy secretary general Mumbi Phiri has never retired or resigned from the party and she does not, therefore, need to reapply to join as purported by Sampa.
Sampa recently wondered when Phiri applied to rejoin the party as per their constitutional requirement, saying it was in public domain that she retired from active politics.
But in an interview, Friday, Mwila said the party wanted to amend its constitution to enable Sampa, Kambwili and GBM to contest the presidency as they were currently ineligible.
“Miles Sampa left the party, after leaving the party, that’s why as central committee we came up with the decision that we amend the constitution because Miles Sampa is one of the people that do not qualify to stand as PF president. Because article 52 of our constitution is very clear that anyone who wants to stand as president must be a member of the party for five years continuously. So ask Miles Sampa when he came back to the party.
That’s why Chishimba Kambwili, GBM and Miles Sampa, we agreed that we amend the constitution to allow them to participate. The three of them don’t qualify; himself, GBM and Chishimba Kambwili and that’s why we said let’s go to the general conference and amend the constitution to allow them to participate. Otherwise, if we don’t amend the constitution, even him will not qualify,” he said.
And Mwila said as then secretary general of the party, he never received any letter of resignation or retirement from Phiri.
“Mumbi Phiri never resigned from PF, I was secretary general, so I’m talking with a lot of information. Mumbi didn’t resign, not from the party or Central Committee. She never resigned or retired. When you resign or retire from politics, there must be a letter to that [effect]. Which records? Is he secretary general or was he secretary general? Is he the one who was keeping the records? I’m telling you as the one that was keeping the records, I never received a letter from Mumbi Phiri that she has resigned from the party. Let them just compete, so he should not be scared about that,” he said.
Mwila argued that Phiri was more loyal to the party than Sampa.
“And as a member of the party, Mumbi is more loyal, more committed than Miles Sampa. She has the right to contest as far as we are concerned because you can’t compare loyalty of Mumbi Phiri with Miles Sampa, it’s totally different. Mumbi is more committed. So Miles Sampa can’t compare himself with Mumbi Phiri, practically impossible. Mumbi Phiri has been consistent, Mumbi Phiri has been a loyal member of the party. This issue of trying to bar other people, it will not work.
PF is a democratic party and it has to allow any member that wants to stand. Miles Sampa is not the returning officer who can bar Mumbi Phiri, it’s the ones that will be appointed as the returning officer, those are the ones that will make a decision on all the people that have applied. Whether they are eligible or not,” he said.
Mwila urged Sampa to tone down.
“When I was secretary general, it’s me who fought for him to come back in the party. No one wanted Miles Sampa, I personally fought for Miles Sampa, both to come back as a member and to be given a position of mayor and as MP. I have been instrumental, so he should tone down. People condemn me as a person who was in that seat because certain decisions were made by me, and they tell me ‘look at the people that you’ve brought’. So everything that is happening to Miles Sampa is coming on my head,” said Mwila.
“When he was coming back to the party, he wrote a letter to me that central committee should sit and deliberate on his position. I got a letter from him, l took it to the central committee to deliberate. But according to article 72, once you resign from the party, for you to come back it has to take about three years. So Miles Sampa didn’t clock three years, so we had to use articles 72 and 71 so that there’s that discretion of the president, and I took the letter to the central committee and it was deliberated. And the president used his discretion to bring back Miles Sampa. So we know a lot of things, I was secretary general, so it’s better that he tones down.
(Credit: News Diggers)