from ARNOLD MULENGA in Lusaka, Zambia
Zambia Bureau
LUSAKA, (CAJ News) – EIGHT candidates have thrown their names to the hat in the race to succeed Edgar Chagwa Lungu as president of Zambia’s main opposition, the Patriotic Front (PF).
This is ahead of the party’s Extra-Ordinary General Conference in March 2023.
The list includes individuals who have had a run-in with Lungu, accused of running the social democratic political party and government with an iron fist.
The candidates are, in alphabetical order, Chitalu Chilufya, Mutotwe Kafwaya, Chishimba Kambwili, Emmanuel Mwamba, Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba, Greyford Monde, Brian Mundubile and Miles Sampa.
Among the leading candidates, Mundubile (51) is the leader of the Opposition in Parliament.
Sampa (51) has previously headed PF, after the death of founder, Michael Sata (his uncle) in 2014.
His election was later deemed illegal by the High Court, and Lungu was declared the rightful president of the PF.
Mwamba E. (51) has held various diplomatic roles, most prominently, Permanent Representative to the African Union (AU), and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
Mwamba G. (63) is former Minister of Defence. He was expelled from the PF in 2014 and was the running mate of the now-ruling United Party for National Development (UPND) candidate Hakainde Hichilema in the August 2016 presidential election.
Former information minister Kambwili (53) has also been previously fired from the PF.
Chilufya was health minister from 2016 until his dismissal in 2021.
Critics accused Lungu of being dictatorial amid these sackings.
Ex-Transport and Communications Minister Kafwaya (46) and former Minister Of Fisheries and Livestock Monde (45) are rank outsiders.
Lungu (65) quit active politics in 2021 after his defeat by Hichilema (60).
Founded in 2001 as a breakaway party of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), PF, gained power in 2011 and has 60 seats in the National Assembly.
UPND has 82 of the total 167 seats.
Lungu served as the sixth president of the Southern African country from 2015.
– CAJ News