NDC Dumps Kambwili In Favour Of UPND Alliance

The leader of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Chishimba Kambwili, has been expelled from his own party after failing to agree with the NDC’s decision to back UPND president Hakainde Hichilema as the sole opposition candidate in August’s presidential elections. 

At a media briefing in Lusaka on Thursday, NDC Secretary General Bridget Atanga announced that Mr Kambwili had been expelled from the party and that the NDC would be forging ahead in its work with the newly formed opposition alliance.

The news follows Wednesday’s announcement that opposition parties have formed a new electoral pact called the UPND Alliance ahead of August’s polls. The alliance brings together a broad spectrum of political parties, with UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema as its sole presidential candidate.

Mr Kambwili was notably absent from the meeting on Wednesday at which the alliance was announced. In the past the NDC leader has been vocal in expressing the need for a coalition of opposition parties to defeat President Lungu’s Patriotic Front, however he has expressed concerns about working under Hakainde Hichilema. 

At Thursday’s briefing, Mr Atanga said Kambwili had reiterated these doubts upon his recent return to Zambia from the UK. According to Mr Atanga, Kambwili felt it would be better if he defected to his former party the PF. 

Mr Kambwili has not taken the news of his expulsion well, arguing that the NDC central committee had not followed proper procedure in booting him from the party. He maintains that he is in fact still party president and has not been expelled.