There’ll Be Mayhem At PF Conference, Hears High Court

A PF ‘member’ opposed to the holding of a party general conference to elect a presidential candidate for next year’s presidential election yesterday warned that there will be countrywide bloodshed if the convocation goes ahead before addressing the issue of the electoral college.
But PF secretary general Bridget Atanga insists that the ruling party’s electoral college is valid ahead of the general conference expected to take place at Kabwe’s Mulungushi Rock of Authority this weekend.
Mulenga Fube, whose claim of being a member of the PF has been disputed by Atanga, has sued the ruling party, seeking a declaration that the general conference should not go ahead as none but four of the party organs had the mandate to attend the said conference. In his affidavit in reply to the PF’s opposition to his application, which was filed in the Lusaka High Court by his lawyers Gilbert Phiri of PNP Advocates and Keith Mweemba of Keith Mweemba and Advocates, Fube claimed the list of delegates to the general conference was uncertain.
“The list of delegates is uncertain and liable to manipulation and will thus disenfranchise or likely to disenfranchise the delegates thereby defeating the tenets or principles of democracy and good governance and cause anarchy and bloodshed,” Fube submitted before Lusaka High Court judge Mwila Chitabo.
He further claimed that the list of delegates that were supposed to constitute the electoral college at the party conference had expired and that apart from the Masaiti, Mufulira and Lusaka district executive committees and the Copperbelt provincial executive committee, the last three-term party elections were held in 2010. “This court is urged to ensure that, in the absence of resolution by the central committee regarding the delegates to the general conference, an injunction is granted to avert the possibility of mayhem at the general conference which could result in serious disturbance of public security,” Fube cautioned.
On Atanga’s argument that he incompetent to take any court action against the PF over the general conference since he was not a member of the party, Fube produced a letter dated October 27 authored by Edgar Lungu, in his capacity as secretary general then, appointing him to act as interim executive director of the National Project for Poverty Reduction (NPPR).
“I would never have been appointed as chief executive of this organisation if I was not a bona fide member of the Patriotic Front and the Patriotic Front secretariat has been interacting with my office on party matters,” stated Fube.
Ruling in the matter comes up tomorrow.