By Julia Malunga
MATERO PF member of parliament Miles Sampa says imposing a new PF president will result in the former ruling partly having an unpopular leader.
In an interview, Sampa said stopping those wishing to vie for the party presidency is tantamount to stifling democracy.
“At the end of the day, the best outcome is who the people want. How that is determined is what the question is. Imposing one on people will lead to somebody who is not loved or wanted by the majority people within and outside.
If anything, what is important is to make it available to the people out there, it should not be so much of a backroom decision or boardroom decision. That process has to go on but I don’t believe it has to be done hastily.
If June has been set, June is a good time for anybody who wants to participate to prepare. Because this entails going countrywide. But at a point you try to stop other people from standing, then they will be stifling democracy, and as long as there is an element of imposing, then we are headed nowhere,” Sampa said.
“What I call for is calm and respect to the current leadership whose role is to manage the process. If we have factions and pulling and pushing, that is what happened in 2014, then ultimately what we came up with was the best for the party.
Whoever can stand, should stand and they should not stop anyone. People should not speak on behalf of people. If one thinks that they are the best choice, they should let that person apply and make it clear. They should not stop somebody that ‘no it’s not you’ only the vote will tell.”
The Matero MP however said aspirants should weigh themselves before they contested for the leadership position.
“For now, everybody should be magnanimous and weigh themselves. I have seen a lot of names coming up, some are rabble rousers, they are noise makers, they have never won as a councilor or won as a member of parliament or mayor, they are coming from the blues.
They should not be stopped but they should weigh themselves. It is democracy, the moment you start stopping others, then it is not. We should learn from what happened in 2014, we should encourage democracy.
And not look down upon anyone who stands up that they want to stand, we should actually applaud them for being brave. The rules should be set and some rules relaxed in the spirit of allowing a lot of participants,” said Sampa.
“If it means 20 applying, let them apply. Everyone should be encouraged but it should be done with feasibility. There are some who are coming up, in my mind I know ‘this one should not be’ but I can’t stop them.”
During a press briefing last week, Shiwang’andu PF member of parliament Stephen Kampyongo said the party did not want wolves and opportunists to take over the leadership.
“We have noted with keen interest and obviously we all know that the value that PF has is different from other opposition political parties. It is the only political party with a large number, 60 is not a small number of members of parliament. So every chancer would like to jump on what they never produced. And we have seen them.
There are so many parties out there, one man party, if you want to be president, the easiest route is to just go and form a party and call yourself a president. Our priorities must be very clear, what is priority number one at this time?
It is to ensure that all these members and our colleagues who are in court today and our colleagues who will be in court next week including myself, go through these petitions. It is coming at a huge cost, huge millions of Kwacha for the legal teams to defend these seats,” said Kampyongo.
“So if someone wants to come and tell us [that] what is important is a conference other than the cream, the value of the party, then they are not really worthy to be considered for leadership.
Because what is attracting people to PF is the elected MPs and the councilors. And apart from the MPs, we had a large number of councilors who were also petitioned and mayors.
There were tribunals set, that is coming at a cost. So these wolves and opportunists were nowhere to be seen to make sure they help and those that were elected are protected.
So, we are watching them and here we shall help to decide who is going to be our next president, we shall help the party.”- News Diggers