MMD WRANGLES DEEPEN AS POLITICAL GIBBERISH CONTINUES
By Scoop Reporter
CONFUSION in the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) are far from over as the turbulence seems to have just begun with Nevers Mamba’s faction now saying that those saying their leader’s tenure has come to an end have shady and subversive.
Contrary to some party officials’ claim that Dr. Mumba’s tenure has come to an end, MMD spokesperson Cephas Mukuka says Dr Mumba was elected MMD President on May 25, 2012 by a convention in accordance with article 38 (1) of the party Constitution, for an initial period of five years.
Dr. Mukuka says Dr. Mumba’s term was to end in May of 2017 when he would have had the option to seek re-election for his second term but that in May 2016, a group of people ignored the provisions of the party constitution and used unconventional rules to organise a convention and elected themselves to party positions.
He says those people, led by now Patriotic Front (PF) member, Raphael Nakacinda, proceeded from that convention to effect changes to the names of office bearers at the Registrar of Societies and that this led to a protracted court process taken out by the National Secretary of the MMD against the convenors of the “2016 convention”.
He says November 15, 2019, the matter was concluded and that the 2016 convention with all its outcomes were nullified and the Registrar of Societies was ordered to rectify the register and revert to the names that existed on the MMD register before the illegal convention.
“Dr Mumba immediately set out to mobilise the party into holding an elective convention so as to renew the mandates of all elective positions. The National Executive Committee of the party called for a convention in accordance with Article 15. On March 20, 2021, a virtual convention was held and elections supervised by Foundation for Democracy and Progress (FODEP) were successfully conducted. This was the beginning of the second term for Dr Mumba as per the MMD constitution.
“The MMD president is currently in his second term as President of the party. Therefore, his term of office will terminate in 2026. Any statement stating otherwise is meant to hoodwink the members of our party and allege something that is completely unsupported by our party constitution,” Dr. Mukuka said.