Zambia deregisters MMD for failure to pay

The Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), which ruled Zambia for two decades until last September and now holds a third of seats in parliament, said the decision was politically motivated and it would challenge it in court.
The MMD has 53 members in the 150-seat parliament.
The government’s registrar of societies, Clement Andeleke, who is in charge of regulating political parties, said the MMD had lost its status as a political party because it had failed to pay $75 000 in registration fees going back 20 years to when the party first took power.
“The effect of this deregistration is that the MMD has ceased to exist as a political party in Zambia,” Andeleke told a media briefing on Wednesday.
The country, Africa’s top copper producer, now faces a rush of by-elections for the MMD seats but it was not immediately clear when they would be held.
MMD spokeswoman Dora Siliya said the move was political.
“It is very sad that a government official in the name of the registrar of societies wants to involve himself in politics and assault democracy,” Siliya said.
MMD’s rule came to an end in September when populist President Michael Sata was swept to power by voters looking for change in a country that has benefited from the global commodities boom as they felt the riches from its mines had not made their way to the people or created enough jobs.
MMD’s core voters, however, are the rural poor and they could react badly to the party being deregistered.
Meanwhile, Zambian ex-president Rupiah Banda said yesterday the dissolution of the MMD was a mistake that had taken away the freedom of the people.
“To deregister us, you take away the freedom of the people of Zambia,” Banda told journalists a day after his party was dissolved for failing to pay registration fees.
“It is a mistake to deregister our party and whoever approved this should understand what it really means,” he said.
“The world will not respect us if we don’t want democracy,” warned Banda.
When the party lost last year’s election to the Patriotic Front, President Sata took over from Banda.
Since taking office, Sata has launched a tough anti-corruption drive, but MMD members complain they have been singled out. — Reuters/AFP.