Government has moved to deregister the Democratic Party, a formation which former Foreign Affairs Minister Harry Kalaba was planning to stand on as presidential candidate in 2021.

After resigning from government, Kalaba, who is also Bahati PF member of parliament, has been trying to register a political formation to sponsor his candidature but his attempts have previously been thwarted by the Ministry of Home Affairs, through the Registrar of Societies.

Recently, Kalaba revived the old Democratic Party using his supporters who applied to normalise the registration of the party, but sources at the Registrar of Societies told News Diggers that they had decided to deregister the Ndola based party on grounds that its secretariat is defunct.

According to a letter obtained from sources at the Registrar of Societies, addressed to the party national secretary Evans Chilambwe, the registration of the Democratic Party is in accordance with section 13 (2) (d) of the Societies Act.

“Reference in made to your minute dated 27th April, 2018 and 3rd May, 2018 in which you requested this office to, among other things, normalise your registration status and issue you with a duplicate certificate of registration. You may wish to note that your requests were given careful consideration and a thorough analysis of your registration record was done. Further, a random inspection was conducted on your party secretariat on 17th and 18th May, 2018,” stated the Chief Registrar of Societies Thandiwe S.P Mhende.

“In view of the forgoing, the Office has reason to believe that your society ceased to exist. In this regard, I hereby notify you of my intention to cancel the registration of your society in accordance with section 13 (2) (d) of the Societies Act, Cap 119 of the laws of Zambia. Meanwhile, you have seven days from the date of receipt of this letter in which to submit reasons why your registration should not be cancelled.”

Last month, Democratic Party spokesperson Judith Kabemba said the party was in talks with Kalaba so that he could ‘join’ the formation which was under the leadership of its interim president Gift Kalumba.

“The Party has been in talks with Hon Harry Kalaba – the Former Foreign Affairs Minister and Member of Parliament for Bahati Constituency to consider joining the Party, contesting its internal party elections and if successful to be fielded as a Democratic Presidential Candidate for the 2021 General Elections. This resolution is anchored on Hon. Kalaba’s unquestionable record of dedication to duty and accountable leadership qualities that he has consistently displayed during his time in public leadership,” said Kabemba.