Jumbe vows to keep fighting UDF
Despite conducting a successful national convention which saw Atupele Muluzi being elected United Democratic Front (UDF) national chairman, former “interim president” Friday Jumbe said he will fight on.
Jumbe who said he will announce his next move in due course, insisted the convention was undemocratic and did not represent a true reflection of what was happening in the once formidable party.
Austin Atupele Muluzi, son of the country’s former President, Bakili Muluzi, won the position of the party’s national chairman with a landslide victory beating by far two other contenders.
The young Muluzi amassed 2308 votes beating Moses Tobias Dossi who got a mere 23 votes with Ruth Takomana getting only two votes.
Muluzi automatically becomes his party’s president candidate for the 2014 presidential and parliamentary polls.
Jumbe boycotted the convention which took place at the COMESA Hall in Blantyre on Tuesday alongside some prominent members of his faction like Sam Mpasu and Ziliro Chibambo.
“I have always said that this convention has been convened illegally. It did not follow the procedures of the party and we remained aggrieved but it has gone on, they have done it,” said Jumbe without elaborating the party’s flouted procedures.
He said his faction will take a new course of action immediately after the K40 million plus elective conference.
The disgruntled Jumbe also said it was up to the public and other stakeholders to judge what was happening and who was right or wrong.
After stretched internal wrangles the party has been preaching of a rebuilding exercise but its former leader believes the indaba will change nothing.
“It will have an impact on the wishes of those people who want positions but I think for the future we still remain a divided party,” said Jumbe.
Last week, the High Court Judge Joseph Mwanyungwa dismissed Jumbe’s application for an injunction to stop the national indaba after an inter-party hearing.
A few weeks ago, reports were rife that Jumbe was bent on destabilizing the yellow party after he reportedly led 15 of his faction’s senior members to Sanjika Palace where they pledged their allegiance to be “part and parcel of the Peoples Party” after they were introduced by President Joyce Banda.
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