The PF-UPND pact has said it has not delayed in announcing the Presidential candidate because it has not yet chosen the one to stand for the presidency.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with QFM, pact’s UPND Deputy Spokesperson, Cornelius Mweetwa, said the MMD and some stakeholders’ predictions that the pact is doomed are too early.
He said the MMD in particular has no moral ground to say the pact is headed for doom following what he termed as ‘superficial misunderstandings’ in the pact because they have always wanted the pact to be disrupted following its alleged heavy loses it has suffered at the hands of the two pact member parties.
He said the Octopus that predicted Spain’s win of the FIFA World Cup trophy is better placed to predict the pact’s failure, and not the MMD.
Mr. Mweetwa said the PF-UPND pact has not yet chosen the candidate to stand for the presidency for the pact as opposed to insinuations by some people.
He said it is for this reason that the pact has not announced the presidential candidate for the pact, adding that the presidential candidate will be announced at an appropriate time after he has been chosen.
Mr. Mweetwa also said the PF-UPND pact is not a marriage of convenience, but that it was a necessary vehicle for uniting the people of Zambia and the opposition political parties’ voice.
On Caritas Zambia Executive Director, Sam Mulafulafu’s statement that the constitution in Zambia has no provision for a coalition government, Mr. Mweetwa said his statement is highly misplaced.
He said the pact is not seeking to form a coalition government but to form a government sponsored by the parties involved and the people of Zambia.
He said there is nothing unconstitutional about the perceived government to be formed by the Patriotic Front and the United Party for National Development.
He however acknowledged that it is a challenge to explain to the electorates on the combination of the parties intending to form government, but that such challenges are not being surmountable.
He has since cautioned that it is cardinal for any person wishing to comment on the pact to acquaint themselves with the fundamental principles governing the PF/UPND pact.
QFM
Dont worry, I will talk to ba mbuya ba Sata to quit politics as he has nothing to lose at age. But nkhani sili bwino ya pact muona bwanji banyamata. Suppose Given is the President of the pact, how are we going to campaign. I mean how are going to tell voters that policies of PF are Gud or Policies of both parties are gud. If both are good, then why not form one part especially few months before elections.
Yaba just come out in the open that the two leaders have reached a dealock like the post have highlighted bantustanism,tribalism and regional politics from UPND camp.You Cornelius i have known you to be honest from the time we were together at UNZA when you were UNZASU president now its like these two selfish leaders have brainwashed your super mane.Admit that its headed for doom,simple!
Its will prove to be the PACT’s undoing if this thorny issue is not resolved soon. The entire country is waiting.
But the bigger question will still remain to be resolved: how government will be formed if the PACT wins since there is no room for a coalition government in the Zambian constitution.
# 3 [ Keen }
That is a good point from you. It will not work because there is no time to change the Zambian Constitution. They should have done the home work before commiting themselves.
Mweelwa Cornelius – Look no further, we the Zambians are the Octopuses. We can clearly see that this is heading to Doomsday for he Pact
The Octopus sholud be brought to Mundawanga gardern so to predict who is ugly between Sata & RB, whether Chiluba is lazo or not,whether MMD alongside VJ rigged the prevoius general elections,whether there was corruption in Zamtel sale to RB capital,whether RB went to watch world cup or not,whether MMD will be booted out in 2011,whethet Chiluba stole the wife from her previous man,whether the Veep is fit or not or on ARV’ssssssssssssssssssss.
Bane the current Minister of Home Affairs is from UNIP- what difference is this with PF/UPND pact? Pact means working together not a merger or acquisition, amalgamation or even subsidiary or otherwise! A pact is an agreement and in an agreement, you can agree to disagree! With the way things are (PF having more MPs than UPND) it will just make more sense for UPND to accept the VP’s position and stand in the next round of elections!
The problem is that MMD, UNPD & PF has a lot of people from UNIP Days. So the thinking has not changed much. They are trying 21st Centaury Politics with 20th Centaury ideologies. Everything is Pay As You Go. Make some noise, get your 15 minutes fame in The POST and call yourself a seasoned politician.
Dail 991
That will be worth trying. Though we know the answers to those question. However, it would be good to see the Octopus make some verifications
This PACT thing, obviously there is a missing piece which we have been too blind to see. The PACT cannot, repeat CANNOT, have one president. This is an alliance, i.e. two distinct parties working towards a common cause. Having one president to head two parties is simply as s.tupid and ridiculous as it is impractical. If PF and UPND wanted one president in either Sata or his baby, the two parties should have merged into one and not Pacting. Either the PF and UPND, their leaders and supporters are buffoon.s or they do not understand what an alliance is.
Talking about the constitution, how is the PACT gonna make its presidential nomination in 2011?
The PACT is not a party and therefore its nomination for president in 2011 elections will not be valid. On the other hand if the presidential candidate will be sponsored on PF ticket, once that guy is in State House, forget UPND. Same is true if UPND sponsors the candidate, forget PF. It beats me why as a nation we would want to conduct silly political experiments and risk chaos in the nation.
10 # This is the point that every PACT supporter does not want face. This whole thing is a turbulence & commotion for nothing. As well, their leaders do not want to explain this point to the grass roots. No wonder why some have just kept Zeeeeeep. Let them come out and explain the entire guidelines.
We all know that this will just lead to anarchy. Zambia has enjoyed the peace since 1964. One can settle in any part of the country without being afraid of it’s indigenous tribes or people. We should all learn from Nigeria, Kenya, even our close brothers in Zimbabwe. It appears these leaders are predetermined to get to Plot 1 at any cost. Yes, get there then what next? Spent the entire tenancy fighting each
Its everyones prayer that the pact succeeds, I for one don’t mind who heads the pact as long as bwezani is not give the change to continue plundering our nation. Mwanawasa rarely used that challenger for trips like turkey because the jet fuel is too expensive for a country like ours. Him doesn’t see what we are seeing. I am not sure could be because he is already in his late afternoons.
There is no need to rush to choose a Pact president before resolving the procedures for chosing ward and parliamentaly candidates. This has been clearly explained to you all. It’s called down top management. Once there is an agreement on chosing ward & constituent officials then the next stage is to agree how to share ministerial positions. Chosing a presidential candidate now would disadvantage the party that will give in because every MP and Ward officila would like to stand on the ticket of the party sponsoring the presidential candidate. UPND are not as stupid as some people think for them just to agree to being given the lesser post of VP without a proper deal in place. HH is smart, he comes from a corporate world & he understands these things.
Coming from a Corporate World does not mean that you have the wisdom to become a Good Politian. This is the theme he has used over and over. The problem with him is he fails to convey his message. He is not perfect neither are all of us. However, these guys are making “school boy errors” We all know that both HH & SATA want to become presidents. That cannot be denied. Sata says he has more experience and deserves it. HH says that he is young and the presidency should be given to him. It’s like one is in the Ruling Party and the other is in Opposition Party.
HH needs to lay his vision to Zambians about what he will do with. EDUCATION, HEALTH, JOBS, DEVELOPMENT, JUSTICE, REFORMS and the list goes on. So far he has shown nothing.
On the other hand SATA has nothing much to offer apart from recycling old politics that is driven by Rage, Revenge, Intimedations the use of Kaponya’s to to harrasss people and so on
#10-12 You are very correct. Apparently even the pact supporters here do not seem to realize that in the MOU the two parties do not talk about sponsoring a single presidential candidate. The MOU talks about “working together”. That is why in previous by-elections they have sponsored candidates in “respective strong holds”. The problem with such an arrangement is what happens when you are deadlocked on who is strong in a particular area? Wait till 2011 then you will see what a dangerous situation these two parties has created. A merger is actually a better arrangement. Beating the MMD next year – neither scenario will work.
mweetwa go back to Batoka and start learning political science.please tell HH to quit the Pact before the Snake swallows him and his Billions.
The more I read about this pact, the more I think these guys didn’t think through it. It seems there are a lot of issues they’ve overlooked and keeping quiet about whose going to be the presidential candidate is not making them look disorganized. I think they should out the choice of right away.
. . ** i meant to say, “keeping quiet about whose going to be the presidential candidate is making them look disorganized. I think they should out the choice of right away.**
#14 Siya**a How you wish. Your hatred again st MMD will Not break us Shame on the tribalism u are practising at the office
May I just share a few words on the Pact: the Pact is not a party and so they are not looking for a president but a state presidential candidate. The respective parties have their leaders already. The presidential candidate of the Pact could be someone even outside the two parties presidents. We need to understand that we are not talking about coalition government here. A coalition government has its own place. Refer to the British government systeme for coalition governments. Don’t be jittery about who will be the presidential candidate for the pact.
We need to be educated in politics to understand how they are played. If you don’t understand, ask for clarification in stead of exposing your ignorance on a blog like this one.
Suppose Sata becomes the president and HH vice. Later on after winning elections, Sata because he is now a president and has powers tries to argue that he never got any UPND vote to win elections, hence does not need any vice from UPND but from his own part and instructs the police to ensure that HH does not make any noise. Further, he divides UPND by promoting the most vocal guys in UPND to ministerial posts under PF ticket. Do you think HH will have anyone to suport his fight against Sata? This is why the best way forward is forming one part and adopting one president, period.
both are losers with nothing to offer
Ask Mulupi to join the Pact and have him as presidential candidate.
This will solve the troubles of who is more powerful between P.F and UPND.
Southern, Western, Northern and Central areas will be for the Pact.
Everyone knows only UNIP and MMD can have Eastern Province with not enough majority.
#17 Zelect2011….are you sure HH has not laid the UPND vision on EDUCATION, HEALTH, JOBS, DEVELOPMENT, JUSTICE, REFORMS etc? By the way, its not HH’s vision, its the UPND vision. Even without following politics keenly, I know that the HH led UPND has just been saying the same things the Mazoka led UPND used to say. One thing I remember so much is FREE education from Grade 1 upto University as is done in some developed countries. I have also heard Sata talk about more money in the pockets just like I have heard RB talk alot about bringing in investors to develop the country. Its either you dont listen when politicians are talking or you dont read or you choose what to listen to. Whatever the case, it shows a deficiency on your understanding of Zed politics. Some more reading will help…
#26 More to join….I agree with that suggestion let them consider Milupi as you say. Magande and Masebo could also be good possibilities. Masebo would be a hit am sure
#23 The pact can only pick an outsider (who people are going to reject by the way) after Sata and HH disagree on who between the two can be the sole presidential candidate but agree that the best choice should be an outsider – see how difficult such a scenario is? In Zambian politics the President has a lot of power and so to pretend that the presidential candidate is not a big issue at the moment is wrong. There are more people who care about the pact presidential candidate than otherwise. If the “working group” can fail to solve a by-election impasse – then what of the presidential candidate?
#2 I would advise you to stop being shallow minded as regards what you call tribal, bantustanism and regionalism attached to the UPND. You seem to be riding on Mr.Kabimba’s previous remarks when he misquoted HH. Notice that, the Pact is like a marriage between the two and it was folly for Kabimba to wash HH’s perceived short comings in public if at all the two parties were genuinely engaged. That just shows that the PF is truthfull to its partner. Remember Mr.Sata’s comment on the Mfumbwe violence when he said publicly that in Milanzi where his party contested there was no violence, attaching the violence tag to UPND. In my opinion the pact should not be viewed as an opportunity for PF to swallow UPND and Sata to rule. There is enough room to believe Pact is a cheat to the Zambian…
#2 I would advise you to stop being shallow minded as regards what you call tribal, bantustanism and regionalism attached to the UPND. You seem to be riding on Mr.Kabimba’s previous remarks when he misquoted HH. Notice that, the Pact is like a marriage between the two and it was folly for Kabimba to wash HH’s perceived short comings in public if at all the two parties were genuinely engaged. That just shows that the PF is untruthfull to its partner. Remember Mr.Sata’s comment on the Mfumbwe violence when he said publicly that, in Milanzi where his party contested there was no violence, attaching the violence tag to UPND. In my opinion the pact should not be viewed as an opportunity for PF to swallow UPND and Sata to rule. There is enough room to believe Pact is a cheat to the…
This one says this, that one says that, those also….why are you so eager to push the pact? It is not even in office yet! Meanwhile mukulu mpuno Vasco Da Banda is on another expedition! Weeeru!
Why is it that Zambians (and kenyans,nigerians)pay so much undue attention to politics,sports and so few comments on economics?Maybe if you ignore these hoodlum leaders when they yap on nothings and show you will only pay attention to them when they focus on economies, improve services delivered and have a day of the year set aside in parliament accounting for how many more homes have water.this year vs last,how many more schools,docters,km of roads paved and what did not improve or went back and have opposition genuinely tell their side and what they’ll do better if in gov.As it is i really don’t see improvements as these african thugs have learnt if you call you opponent a goat you get more coverage than quarterly GDP,improved sanitation or more exports.
Where can one find these “fundamental principles” that govern the come together? Are they also in SATA’s head, like PF manifesto?
if you look at the 2008 ballot paper even 2011 will be the same with both bums sata and hh appearing. corneliuos mweetwa is lost and joblee dispite being a lawyer. find a life your relative hh wont feed you forever
WHETHER THE PACT SUCCEEDS (IM ONE AMONGST MANY BELIEVING IT WILL) OR NOT, THE MMD IS NOT THE ALTENATIVE DURING 2011 ELECTIONS. SIMPLE LOGIC.
#36, You are so right. The point is clear mmd is not the alternative period.
23 kokulila; well said but be practical don’t think like you are still wearing napkins. Why waste so much time (it has been one year of Pact now) with pact presidential candidates and if you win more time wasted trying to harmonise manifestos, how to share the spoils, even locking up your colleagues to silence them as would surely happen. Both guys have stated their desire to live at plot 1 and if one gets there first it does not take any intelligence to know that they will want to STAY there. Isn’t it neater to simply merge into one party? Anyway, this pacting simply cannot work whatever theory is applied.
these chaps will never choose a candidate.watch this space.
#39 i cant agree less with you,its less than 18 months b4 the next general election but no sign of a leader of the pact,come 2011 when mmd wins again they will make some lawyers rich again by having more petitions.so either vote for mmd or ken nkondo!!!
UPND can do better by electing credible leaders and not that crooked policeman Conn(elius) who conned UNZASU of it’s meagre resources.
its all a pipe dream my friends. pact came, got us all excited and now, the predictable has happened.
#42 what do we do now?
IAM NOT A PROPHET OF DOOM BUT ONE THING I CAN SAY IS THAT THE REAL CHANGE THAT WE WILL SEE IN THE PACT IS , IF HHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHH BECOMES THE PACT PRESIDENT, CAUSE BA SATA HAS SAME IDEOLOGIES OF MMD, ZAMBIANS LET US NOT BE FOOLED OR DOCILE SATA IS SUCH AN UNPREDICTABLE CHARACTER, REMEMBER THE WAY HE MANIPULATED EVERY ONE IN MMD DURING THE THIRD TERM, WHAT CHANGE IS SATA GOING TO BRING WHEN HIS BRIANS WERE MORE ACTIVE IN KAUNDA ,MMD WE ARESUFFERING NOW BECAUSE OF THE DEEDS OF BA SATA, THIS GUY IS UN PREDICTABLE HE HAS DICTATORIAL BEHAVIOUR THAT WE HAVE NEVER SEEN,HE IS UN DEMOCRATIC, THERE IS NO PF IF THERE IS NO SATA, CAN U IMAGINE THIS GUY WILL WOKE UP ONE MORNING AND KICK OUT HH IF HE BECOMES VICE PRESIDENT AND OUR CONSTITUTION HAS NO PROTECTION ON THE OFFICE OF VP, SATA CAN HIRE & FIRE
The pact is a loose arrangement for now, as can be seen from by-election pact candidate saga… what we calling for is for the pact to firm-up the marriage. This so that we can know the head of the pac. it is not helping the pact to delay important decisions like its presido candidate. It is common practise world-wide for presido candidates to be know year or years before election.
the pact should work out well because if not,the MMD will definately win…..:((:((:((:((:((:((:((:((:((:((:((:((:((:((:((:((:((:((:((
WHAT’S UP PEOPLE?AM NOW IN MY OFFICE,ANY NEW DEVELOPMENT ABOUT THE PACT?
#22 you are really sick. No tribalism has been mentioned in my posting. You are better of dead my friend. Use your head to think and not your d!ck. Your inept comments are disturbing everyone. You are living proof that man can live without a brain.
High sources in the PACT have reveled that Mr MC SATA will lead the PACT for the next 5 years and Mr HH will deputise him. After the 5 years HH will then be given an opportunnity.
Now how will this go with the UPND Cadres?????
49 do you know anything about that guy run a series on movi tv tolking of the post. and who funds him
its interesting tat every Zambia is caught pants down in the web of tribal politics.MMD Headqtr=Eastern,UPND Headqtr=Southern,PF Headqtr=Northern,Luapula(plus al those minority tribes who have no impact except to be decieved & swallowed) ADD & ULP=Western. so now who is to blame.Stop pointing fingers at other tribes ( remove the peck in eye b4 assisting your friend ). NONSENCE..! The Pact problems are just regionalism politics and the PACT is not going anywhere.
Maybe we should let the easterners decide who should be the next president. They are the only ones who were never taken in by Chiluba when the rest of the country was hoodwinked. Eastern province only voted for MMD when Chiluba was long gone.
Let Tumbwe be the candidate.
Here is what I would like to see for the Pact:
1) Form
Michael Sata become President, Hakainde Hichilema becomes Vice President.
2) Content
The PF’s non-neoliberal agenda comes to the forefront, while the UPND’s moderated neoliberal view updates the PF’s policy objectives.
There are ways in which neoliberal policies can be a lot less damaging to the Zambian economy and people than what is being put forward by the MMD.
You can have foreign investment, but there must be sunset clauses on foreign ownership (I like Uncle Bob Sichinga’s ‘Buy, Operate, Transfer’ concept); no expatriation of profits for 5 years, deposited in Zambian owned banks; hiring Zambians only or preferentially; a minimum wage that is 80% of their domestic minimum wage.