By James Mulenga

Former Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) National Secretary Major Richard Kachingwe has said that MMD President Dr. Nevers Mumba was elected for a full 5 year term from 2012.

This was in the case in which MMD National Secretary Ms. Winnie Zaloumis has taken Mr. Felix Mutati and three others to Court to find out who gave them authority to organise the illegal MMD Convention of 2016.

Maj. Kachingwe who was part of Mr. Felix Mutati’s defense witnesses was the National Secretary of the MMD during the time Dr. Mumba was elected as MMD President.

Major Kachingwe started by giving a brief to what led to the election of Dr. Mumba.

“In 2011 after We as the MMD lost power, then Party President Mr. Rupiah Banda decided to quit politics and hence resigned as MMD President. The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party sit down and decided that the Party elects a President through a convention”, Major Kachingwe said.

Maj. Kachingwe further said that the Party decided to have a Provincial Conventions because the party didn’t have any funds.

“After NEC decided to have a Convention to elect the Party President. Our Treasurer who is mandated to organise the funds for organizing the convention informed the house that they party didn’t have resources to organize a National Convention, hence we decided to have Provincial Conventions to elect the Party President”, Major Kachingwe said.

Major Kachingwe further said that Dr. Mumba term as Party President was supposed to end in 2017 and the election of Felix Mutati as MMD Party President in 2016 was illegal.

“When the provincial elections were called for, a number of persons stood who include Dr. Nevers Mumba, Hon. Felix Mutati and Dr. Situmbeko Musokotwane just to mention a few. In the first round Dr. Mumba emerged victorious but didn’t get the 50 + 1 %, so it had to go for a rerun between him and Hon. Mutati. Dr. Mumba beat Hon. Mutati and emerged as Party President. And because he was elected through a convention, his tenure of office was for 5 years and since he was elected in 2012, his election was supposed to end in 2017”, Major Kachingwe said.