FRIENDLY ADVICE?
GILBERT Liswaniso should be the last person to advise the former ruling Patriotic Front to unite and end the infighting.
Mr Liswaniso, the national youth chairperson of the United Party for National Development (UPND) says the squabbles that have engulfed the PF are unfortunate and must be stopped.
Mr Liswaniso said the governing party will continue respecting the former ruling party and prays that the issues surrounding it can come to an end.
He said the UPND want to see to it that the former ruling party members start working together and speak for the people.
Mr Liswaniso said what is happening is unfortunate and no one could wish that such continues in the country™s political circles.
fiPF is the biggest opposition in the country, but the problem is that members themselves are fighting each other and this is not what we want to see in that party.
We want to see that the members stop the infighting, they should come together as one people and then they start talking about the welfare of the people in the country. So, it will be important that they do that for the betterment of the party,fl Mr Liswaniso said.
While Mr Liswaniso™s fiwise counselfl appear genuine to the uninitiated, he is actually making a mockery of the PF for it is common knowledge that the problems it is facing are not self-made.
They are the results of the fiImingalatofl tactics introduced by the ruling UPND that were announced by none other than President Hakainde Hichilema himself.
In their desire to ensure that the former ruling party and its leader, former President Edgar Lungu do not make a comeback, the UPND has gone out of its way, using the government machinery to make this a reality.
With tacit government support, approved at the highest level, the PF™s expelled Matero Member of Parliament Miles Sampa was allowed to hold a retreat in Lusaka on October 24 which was a front for an elective conference at which he engineered his election as PF president.
The meeting at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre was heavily guarded by police with delegates locked up until the fideedfl was done.
The government also swiftly ensured that the records of the PF leadership at the Registrar of Societies was altered, a move in which the registrar was one of the casualties OE being removed for refusing to break the law.
At the National Assembly, the Speaker, Ms Nelly Mutti hastily made changers regarding the Leader of the Opposition, dropping Mr Brian Mundubile for Mr Robert Chabinga of the Sampa faction.
These changes were effected even as the leadership wrangle was taken to court challenging Mr Sampa.
The courts have also played a hand by delaying to deal with the numerous cases brought by the warring factions.
In addition, the Electoral Commission of Zambia joined in by stating that a person contesting an election only needed to be cleared by the president of the sponsoring political party, making it easy for Mr Sampa to pick candidates.
Thus, the mainstream PF candidates found their nomination papers being rejected by returning officers in favour of the Sampa faction.