PF, UNDP Pact will fail says Mwaanga

Veteran politician Vernon Mwaanga says the pact between Patriotic Front (PF) and United Party for National Development (UPND) will not hold because it is not defined in terms of issues but the desire to remove President Rupiah Banda and the MMD from power.

In a statement released in Lusaka June 8 Mwaanga describes the pact as one of convenience and opportunism. He says alliances were not new in Zambia as could be seen from those that existed in 2006 between the PF and the United Liberal Party (ULP) and the other comprising UPND, UNIP and FDD.

“They have every reason to exist in a democratic dispensation like ours, but it is important to bear in mind that this pact represents two very different and distinct political parties with different ideologies and different development and social manifestos,” he said.

Mwanga said in his political life, he had witnessed many political pacts formed out of greed by the owners and that the followers of the parties were usually not consulted.

“The PF-UPND pact has not defined the real issues of coming together. If it happens to materialise then as the MMD, we shall find effective ways to bring it down so as to scoop the 2011 elections,” he said.

Mwaanga called on all stakeholders to support President Banda saying it was not his fault that the country had not been spared of the effects of the global economic recession.