EMBATTLED Civic United Front (CUF) Chairman Prof Ibrahim Lipumba has maintained that he remains the legitimate leader of the party, for only general congress is mandated to expel him.
The opposition CUF on Tuesday announced
the expulsion of Prof Lipumba from the party, saying 43 out of 53
members of the CUF’s National Leadership Council had supported the
expulsion move against Prof Lipumba whom they accused of undermining the
party.
Displaying his stance, Prof Lipumba said
he was waiting for CUF’s Secretary General Maalim Seif Sharif Hamad to
report at the party’s headquarters, at Buguruni in Dar es Salaam, to
work out strategies of rebuilding the party.
Speaking at a press conference in Dar es
Salaam, Prof Lipumba argued that the meeting that expelled him was null
and void as it was convened contrary to the party’s constitution.
He said according to the party’s
Constitution Section 79(2)(a), the party’s general congress is the only
organ mandated to take disciplinary actions, including expulsion,
against its chairman.
Prof Lipumba, quoting the CUF’s
constitution, noted that the most Leadership Council could do was to
reprimand or warn him only. “Therefore, the council has no legitimacy or
constitutional powers to expel me.
What happened in Zanzibar was a sitting
for wedding ceremony,” he argued. Prof Lipumba argued further that the
Tuesday’s meeting was attended by only three members of the central
committee from the Mainland while the party’s constitution requires that
such meeting to be attended by 22 members of the central committee.
On Tuesday, Mr Katani Ahmed Katani, who
chaired the council’s extraordinary meeting in Zanzibar told reporters
that the party had expelled Prof Lipumba effective from Tuesday.
He said members of the leadership
council discussed a number of issues that undermined the party and
decided to expel him. “When he was summoned, he ignored the summon and
never responded,” claimed Mr Katani.
No comments :
Post a Comment