Sampa Steps Down from PF Presidency; Endorses Lungu in Desperate Bid to Unify the Party

Miles Sampa, Member of Parliament for Matero and former Mayor of Lusaka, formally relinquished his disputed title as President of the Patriotic Front (PF) on Thursday.

In the same announcement, he unequivocally endorsed former president Edgar Lungu as the party’s candidate in next year’s presidential election. This notionally brings to an end a long-running feud within the party, and constitutes a personally embarrassing climbdown from Sampa.

“This party may have internal fights”, Sampa said, “but we always come together and unite”. In anticipation of next years election, the party appears desperate to appear united, after years of debilitating factional squabbles.

Sampa’s first attempt to gain control of the party came in 2011, when a leadership election in which he claimed victory was declared null and void by the High Court of Zambia. He then left the PF and endorsed the UPND in 2016, before then returning to the party and serving in Lungu’s cabinet.

After Lungu’s defeat in 2021, his election to the party’s presidency was disputed, leaving two rival factions within the PF led by Sampa and Lungu respectively. Sampa’s humbling now leaves the party under Lungu’s uncontested control.

Questions remain however, most notably about Lungu’s eligibility as a candidate, having stood in presidential elections three previous times, in 2015, 2016, and 2021. The Constitutional Court ruled last year that Lungu has surpassed the constitutional two-term limit.

Sampa pledged in his speech to “do everything possible to ensure that president Lungu is on the ballot”, though it will surely take nothing short of flagrant corruption and lawbreaking to allow that to happen.