Turmoil At Democratic Party Over By-Election Nominations

The Democratic Party (DP) has broken into in-fighting after two rival factions claimed they had received a letter from the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) allowing their candidate to participate in the upcoming by-election for Kabwata constituency. 

Harry Kalaba, who has been the party’s de-facto leader since 2018, claimed yesterday that he had received permission from the ECZ for his preferred candidate to take part in the by-election.  

Mr Kalaba claims the letter was addressed to Precious Ntambu, who he states is the party’s secretary general, as per records at the registrar of societies. 

However, another high-ranking DP official, Judith Kabambe, attests that she is the party’s registered secretary general and that therefore only her faction of the party is allowed to nominate a candidate.

In a statement to the media, Ms Kabambe called Kalaba  “the imposter and the masquerade who has never been DP President”. She claimed that Mr Kalaba had never had the authority to appoint a secretary general, despite being the party’s nominee for president in the 2021 general election.

The Kabwata by-election is due to take place on February 3rd, with the official campaign period beginning today. Candidates have until 15:00 to file their nomination papers or else they will not be eligible to run.

The by-election was triggered following the death of UPND MP Levy Mkandawire in November of last year.