NEW CONGRESS PARTY PRESIDENT PETER CHANDA LEAVES UKA

NEW CONGRESS PARTY PRESIDENT PETER CHANDA LEAVES UKA

11/09/2024

As New Congress Party we would like to address the nation  on urgent matters arising. The New Congress party we are a progressive pro poor political party that has been on  the political scene for a very long time. No wonder after accessing the political barometer in the country we joined forces with other like minded political parties in answering the call by the Zambian people in the need for a united opposition, hence we joined UKA. We joined UKA in good faith in order to work together with our comrades in opposition politics to serve Zambia.

However, today, our party is hereby announcing a painful decision after consultations that with immediate effect, New Congress Party has decided to withdrawal its membership from the United Kwacha Alliance. In this regard, myself as deployee of the party that was sent to join the alliance will no longer be part of UKA too.

As a party, we have four main reasons why we have decided to voluntarily leave UKA as follows:

1. Yesterday, the Chairman of UKA of UKA featured on a Private TV discussion where he said “any member of UKA who joins other alliances shall be expelled from UKA”. As a party, we find this statement undemocratic and irresponsible because UKA never told us such rules when joining. Why should UKA start dictating to us on who we should associate with and maybe where and how? For us, this is a red flag and a serious point of departure.

2. UKA is a divided house full of treachery and selfish leaders who seem so compromised and hired to frustrate the wish of Zambians to have an effective coalition to remove UPND. The so called founder members of UKA, many of who have never even contested as presidential candidates have sidelined us and mistreated us like useless politicians in UKA. Apart from blocking some of us to be party of the Coucil of Presidents, they now organize rallies in the name of UKA to attend themselves while some of us are blocked from attending those rallies. The case in mind is the Samfya rally by Citizens First (CF) were our party and leader was blocked from attending for fraudulent reasons. As New Congress Party, we find that approach very disrespectful and unacceptable in a coalition that pretend to be one yet it is a divided house of “them” verses “us”.

3. Lastly, we are also shocked why only Citizens First has the support of government to hold rallies whenever they want while most us are being blocked and denied the permission to do the same. For example, New Congress Party was denied permit by the Zambia police to have rallies in Chipata and Lundazi last month. What charms is CF using to freely be having rallies in Kitwe and Samfya? I would to appeal to other opposition parties to critically interrogate this strange pattern where only UPND and CF have express rights to have rallies while they block and deny all of us. For us, this situation has made it difficult to respect UKA because we feel infiltrated and politically betrayed by some members. 

4. In addition, we have seen a pattern of bullying, harassment, disrespect and abuse of the Former President in UKA, a national leader we respect and hold in high esteem. Unfortunately, the leadership of UKA has never condemned fellow UKA members who have belittled and disrespected the President of PF and Sixth Republican President. As a party we find this unacceptable and a violation of our traditional values and culture to respect adults and elders.

Going forward, we have decided to join the new electoral pact, the “Tonse Alliance” . From its terms of reference, this new alliance is a multsectoral coalition we have always wanted, an alliance of political parties, civil society organizations, pressure groups, individual citizens, religious organizations, research institutes, and all like minded stakeholders. 

Our decision to join “Tonse Alliance” was necessitated by a collective party discussion and consensus within New Congress Party. Therefore, l am glad to announce that we are ready from today onwards to be treated as former members of UKA and new members of “Tonse Allaince”, a people’s movement.

I thank you!

Mr. Peter Chanda
President of New Congress Party