It Will Be Difficult To Sell Mumba In 2016 – N/West MMD

THE MMD in North-Western Province says it will be difficult to sell party president Nevers Mumba to the electorate for the 2016 elections.

Backing calls to have former president Rupiah Banda return to active politics, North-Western Province executive committee publicity and information secretary, Jameson Frederick Kamenga, said the MMD has seen many failures under Mumba.

He said Banda was well-known across the country than Mumba and that it would therefore be easy to sell the former to the electorate.

“Most of our senior members are not obeying Mumba. And since we started by-elections, we have not seen chitenges with Mumba as president, we have never seen it,” he said.

When asked if the region had turned its back on Mumba, Kamenga said it was in fact North-Western Province which had given him undivided loyalty when his name was floated for the party presidency after Banda’s defeat in 2011.

He, however, said Mumba’s failures were negatively affecting the former ruling party.

“As North-Western Province, we supported Mumba but we have seen that in his leadership, there is some failure. We have no money for by-elections. Imagine Solwezi Central only received K20,000. We need someone with impact. RB has impact,” Kamenga said.

He said if Mumba wanted to remain as party president, Banda should still return to be the party’s presidential candidate in 2016 saying the same arrangement worked when Frederick Chiluba was president of MMD but the party adopted late Levy Mwanawasa as its presidential candidate in the 2001 general elections.

“If Nevers wants to remain as party president, then our candidate must be RB,” Kamenga said.

He said it was the view of most members of the party’s hierarchy that Banda returns to lead the MMD and contest the 2016 elections.

“The [MMD] in North-Western Province have welcomed the calls for Rupiah Banda to come back to active politics because now he is the only one who can bring unity in the party. Even those senior members of the party obey RB,” Kamenga claimed. “We [PEC] are in support of this decision. Those who went to PF and UPND will come back if they hear that RB is back. If RB won’t come back, we will lose more members to other parties”

He said the idea to back Banda’s return had massive support even among most provincial executive committee members.

Kamenga also claimed that the grassroots in the districts were overwhelmingly for the idea and that the party structures in the province would soon meet to come up with a resolution over Banda’s comeback.

Posted by Editor on October 17, 2014. Filed under POLITICS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.