LUSAKA, Zambia (AFP) – Zambia’s biggest opposition party split yesterday, just months before the country’s general and presidential elections, with several senior members resigning to form a new party in protest at the choice of a wealthy businessman as party leader.

The split in the United Party for National Development (UPND), which holds 43 seats in Zambia’s 150-seat parliament, came after the party congress voted last week to choose wealthy 44-year-old businessman Hichilema Hakainde as its presidential candidate.

Former UPND vice president Sakwiba Sikota told a news conference in the capital Lusaka that he and other senior members had left in protest at “nepotism and vote-buying” at the congress.

“I have decided to resign from the UPND because of tribalism and corruption that characterised the last party congress,” Sikota added.

Sikota, who had been tipped to take over the party, lost to Hakainde in a vote at the congress marred by violence.

A fight broke out between supporters of the two factions at the congress and police had to be called in to calm the situation.

Sikota resigned alongside former deputy president Bob Sichinga, former chairman Henry Mtonga, several UPND members of parliament and over 200 grassroots officials and supporters.

“Hakainde won the election through vote-buying and intimidation of delegates,” Mtonga alleged.

Hakainde was encouraged to enter politics by supporters in the south after the death earlier this year of his mentor and business partner, the late UPND leader Anderson Mazoka.

The new party has not been named yet and its leadership is yet to be announced.