Ruling party convention goes ahead

The Lusaka High Court on Thursday threw out two injunctions aimed at restraining Zambia’s ruling party from holding an extra-ordinary convention where President Frederick Chiluba is expected to announce a decision to run for a third term of office. But renegade Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) members of parliament who had taken the party hierarchy to court over the issue, immediately appealed against the ruling in the Supreme Court. What the High Court decision effectively means is that the national convention is likely to go ahead as planned on Friday in the mining town of Kabwe, 145 km north of Lusaka. Michael Sata, the MMD national secretary whom the injunctions were directed at commented: “Both injunctions have been thrown out ... we are proceeding with business as usual in Kabwe. This also goes to show that politics is for real men and not boys and girls.” He was referring to the group of dissident MMD MPs opposed to the campaign for a constitutional amendment to enable Chiluba to stand for a third term in presidential elections later this year. “From the beginning,” Sata said, “this was a matter for the party to sort out. It was not necessary to bring it to court and waste time.” However, Minister of labour Edith Nawakwi, one of the more than 70 MP’s that have signed a petition opposing a third term said all was not lost. “Our lawyers are right now filing a notice to appeal against the high court ruling,” Nawakwi told journalists outside the courtroom. According to High Court Judge Peter Chitenji who presided over the case, he would have liked the case to go to trial. He said that he was mindful of procedural anomalies in the way the convention had been called, but a court case would have risked bringing the country to a standstill. Chiluba is scheduled to address the MMD convention on Saturday, which is expected to be attended by more than 1,500 party stalwarts. Analysts believe he can muster the support he needs to have the party constitution amended to allow him a third term, before he approaches parliament to change the country’s magna carta. However, Minister of Education and MMD Vice-President Godfrey Miyanda has declared that he intends to stand for the presidency of the ruling party at the convention. A broad front of Zambian civil society has united in recent months to demand that Chiluba respect the two-term limit of the present constitution. They argue that the pro-third term campaign is a threat to the country’s fragile democracy.