By Vital Correspondent
Information minister Cornelius Mweetwa has revealed that about 50 percent of the current outgoing PF Members of Parliament are seeking adoption to stand on the UPND ticket in the August general election.
And Mweetwa says the high number -25- candidates seeking to challenge President Hakainde Hichilema in August shows how greedy Zambian oppositionists are.
Mweetwa has explained that not all outgoing PF Members of Parliament seeking refuge in the ruling UPND will be accommodated.
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He said outgoing opposition MPs jumping to UPND are pursuing stability over chaos.
“…many opposition members of Parliament have expressed intention to stand on UPND ticket because they have now come to very close quarters to understand what this President (Hichilema) is all about and that he means well,” Mweetwa said this when he featured on ZNBC’s Sunday Interview.
Mweetwa also parroted Speaker Nellie Mutti’s ruling that despite most desperate outgoing PF and some independent MPs having denounced their sponsoring political parties and publicly defected to the ruling UPND in the glare of cameras and the media, they still remain in opposition until Parliament dissolves tomorrow.
“Where I stand now, the number I have is almost half the number of those who are in the Patriotic Front – these are actually good MPs who are going to apply to stand under the UPND ticket. Adoption depends on you being somebody who can win an election but also without a record of criminality or corruption – that I must make it clear to all those who may wish to apply to stand on the UPND ticket,” he said.
Mweetwa denied assertions that UPND is using office of Registrar of societies to stifle oppositionists
“If you have to talk about the Patriotic Front, you have seen that they have formed themselves into various branches and now you have so many alliances coming out of one political party. It is their own disorder and disunity which has to account for their state of being and not the work of the ruling party,” said Mweetwa.
“To contest an election, it is not the will of the President of the Republic, it is the will of the people as established by the law. The law has prescribed qualifications in the Constitution of who qualifies to stand as Member of Parliament or as Mayor. So, whoever intends to stand has to fulfil the legal requirements as by law established and not fear that the ruling party will be barring the opposition – that is just a figmentation in some people’s minds.”
Mweetwa said there is no appetite for President Hichilema to stifle the enjoyment of the rights of the opposition who may be desirous to contest in the forthcoming presidential and general elections.
He said the high number of 25 candidates attempting to challenge President Hichilema points to lack of shared vision and purpose.
“They have egocentric and individualistic ideas that they are pursuing in the name of enjoying democratic freedoms. It also shows the level of greed that they can’t give each other an opportunity while others support,” said Mweetwa.
He advised opposition to emulate UPND that stopped anyone from challenging President Hichilema to the party’s presidency, a move he said was a “valid stamp of confidence in the President.