CANADA-based lawyer Elias Munshya has described the PF general conference as a mere award-giving ceremony that was spiced up with amasha (dancing).
On Saturday, selected PF officials gathered in designated provincial venues and at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre in Lusaka for the party’s general conference.
Edgar Lungu sailed through unopposed as the PF president.
Later in the day, names of those picked to be members of the central committee for the governing party emerged.
“At Mulungushi International Conference Centre today (Saturday), the Patriotic Front met for their convention. It was so hilarious!” Munshya said in a live video broadcast on his Facebook page on Saturday night. “That was not a convention [but] that was just like some kind of a meeting where people came together, like an award-giving ceremony that was poorly organised.”
He explained that he was commenting on the PF gathering because the party ought to do better as the one that is in the government.
“I’m talking about the PF because it is the ruling party. The way the ruling party conducts themselves is an indication of the way they are going to conduct themselves when ruling the country. What happened at Mulungushi International Conference Centre is an embarrassment,” he said.
He recalled that the UPND had elections for its National Management Committee (NMC) members and that: “it even took them days for them to properly count the votes.”
“Afterwards, they gave us the list of the 70 people they had elected. But Honourable Given Lubinda told us that what the UPND had held was a WhatsApp convention and laughed at the UPND,” Munshya noted, adding that Lubinda was trying to give an impression that the PF would hold one of the best conference.
“Everybody thought it would be an open election where people go and stand to be voted for. But when the day of the convention arrived, it was not a convention at all. Baciya fye mukushana (they simply went to dance). Bacibikapo ulwimbo ulucelo nokushana icipesha amano (they played a song in the morning and keenly danced to it).”
Munshya indicated that it was shocking that without anyone being voted for at the PF Mulungushi and provincial get-togethers, “to the shock of everybody, they started congratulating each”
“This one is congratulating this one and that one. This was confusing! What was the role of the independent electoral commission that Samuel Mukupa had created? If you say that’s what the PF constitution says [that people should not be voted for], does it mean all those people who were aspiring to be central committee members had no idea of what the Patriotic Front constitution says?” he said. “That’s why I say ifiteka ba Patriotic Front fyama dongodongo (the way the PF governs is flippant).”
He further argued that the PF could not sensibly govern a country.
“Patriotic Front is a party of kelenkas (crooks). Ba kelenka abakote (old crooks)!” Munshya charged.
Munshya also mocked the PF for not upholding gender parity and youth representation among the selected members of the central committee.
“The Patriotic Front is a party of confusion. So, you’ll see that now that people are reacting, they will release another list,” he said. “After my address tonight, President Lungu will appoint several youths [as central committee members], just as a stunt.”
Munshya continued that the PF leadership haphazardly hand-wrote the names of the central committee on a piece of paper, without any reflection.
“They call for a church service like convention where they call this and that one to briefly speak. Then they throw a piece of paper with names of central committee members. They even clap for themselves! How do they forget to add names of youths on the list?” he mocked. “I’m extremely disappointed in the way the Patriotic Front has conducted itself. They have utusaka utwa ndalama (they have bags of money) but baya panga conference iyama dongodongo. Conference iyamasha (of dancing)! It was a conference of Patriotic Front amasha. What an embarrassment!”
He stressed that Zambia’s youths should not vote for: aba ba kelenka (these crooks) in this year’s August 12 general elections.
“Don’t vote for them! The Patriotic Front has no respect for the youths and for the future of the country,” noted Munshya.