A KBN TV EDITORIAL – 2026, A NEAR MISSED OPPORTUNITY, THE COST OF INDECISION, EXPERIMENTS AND SELF-SERVING INTERESTS – THE CASE OF ZAMBIAN OPPOSITION
Opposition political parties have up to April or at most June this year to settle on a single candidate they will consider as their silver bullet to deliver next year’s electoral victory.
Failure to unite and rally behind a single candidate, the opposition, in their numbers, can kiss their chances in 2026 goodbye and start waiting for 2031 elections.
With only a few months to the next round of elections, there is no more luxury of time for the opposition to remain fragmented and weak!
Opposition leaders should be radical and take matters into their own hands and do what the former head of state should have done.They need to set aside personal and partisan interests, anoint one among themselves in readiness for next year’s elections.
As we write, we keep the former head of state in our prayers and wish him God’s healing power and protection as he seeks medical attention outside the country. This nation still needs him strong and sound.
It is our estimation that if the opposition does not unite, the only thing the ruling party must do as a sustained strategy, is continue weakening the opposition by squeezing them financially, locking them up, ensure there is no traction of unity among Tonse, UKA, Zambia We Want and other parties like SP, EFF and others.
So far, empirical evidence suggests that there is a very serious and well-thought-out plot to wipe out the PF from the political scene as one of the largest opposition parties.
However, even though known characters were and are still being sponsored by invisible hands, PF structures have solidly remained intact much to the displeasure of certain quarters.
In the midst of a fierce political tussle, the PF unfortunately, has played in the hands of its opponent and has sadly lacked the requisite leadership traits to harness and reward this incredible display of resilience and membership loyalty across the country.
THE ECL FACTOR IN OPPOSITION
Ideally, the majority of the PF structures, the opposition in general, the Church and civil society, did not expect ECL to assume the role of main player and centre of attraction towards 2026. Many stakeholders had expected him to assume the role of a midwife to deliver an organized, united and vibrant opposition. That was not to happen.
Instead, ECL advisors devised a strategy attempting to unite the opposition around himself as the main protagonist, an assignment they lamentably failed to achieve. (On Monday, 3rd February, read our next Editorial on Internal Factors that Led to the Factions and Political Downfall of PF).
In the process of attempting to prop himself back into the ring, ECL let down some of his senior loyalists who stood by him hoping he would anoint one of them. ECL was misled by a few close allies who wanted to front him to safeguard and secure personal political interests.
They chanted UKA is ECL and ECL is UKA. Later, they changed, Tonse is ECL and ECL is Tonse…..No Tonse without ECL, they said.
What they failed to realise and accept was the fact that whether he was eligible or not, ECL’s time was gone and they needed to help him metamorphosize into a father figure and a states man whom even the current President could consult.
Secondly, a closely knit inner circle of ECL has lived in denial that while PF had and still does stand a chance to bounce back into power, it can only do so through a neutral, likeable, sellable and unifying figure acceptable by different stakeholder categories.
By backing such a candidate, PF can secure their political interests and be guaranteed of next year’s victory. This is the reality they still grapple with and fail to fathom.
Insisting and making Tonse Alliance partners sign off that an opposition Presidential candidate can only come from the PF and not anywhere else, is a flagrant display of not only the lack of appreciation of the fast-changing political dynamics, but also, a self-defeating and highly egocentric position that will see the party’s top leadership losing grip on all party structures and functionaries.
They will see possibilities and political fortunes sliding out of their own hands while they watch helplessly because other factors are now at play.
There is no PF party to protect any more, the only residual capital are members loyal to ECL. Among these members, several of them have future political aspirations and are now critically beginning to consider which viable political outfit they can be part of so that they can either contest or recontest both Parliamentary and Councilor positions.
When they move, they will convince a particular sizable constituency to move with them, such motions happening at multiple fronts across the country will leave the top leadership sidelined and deserted.
To validate the thought above, one must realise that even before the controversial ConCourt ruling that barred ECL from standing, there was already a silent revolt within PF. The revolt may not have been displayed publicly, but the rumblings and disquiet has been very obvious to every insider.
Today, the Raphael Nakachinda leadership as Chief Executive Officer of the party, has lost control of majority PF Members of Parliament. They are not with the leadership and those who careless, have displayed their blatant disdain by siding with the ruling party and campaigning for UPND candidates during by-elections.
Further, very few MPs make financial contributions to the party as required and to date, PF Secretariat staff have gone months without being paid. This is a fact!
Similarly, in a display of self-defeating master strokes that led nowhere, ECL advisors led him on a wrong path of pretending to be consulting with the Church, Civil Society, selected Embassies, and political party leaders while fomenting and sponsoring other political formations that are highly potent with the venom to kill opposition unity.
They told him, the ECL brand was stronger than any political party. What we saw was experiments with UKA, Tonse, People’s Pact and these disastrous experiments have continued with new names now such as Richard Musukwa being floated to be crowned as Tonse Alliance President with Mporokoso Member of Parliament, Brian Mundudile, as his Vice.
The proposal to consider Mundubile is a mere appeasement to the constituency of current MPs where he commands respect and following. Mundubile doesn’t have the support of the top faction leadership.
In the end, even well-meaning political players who have stood ready to forge a strong and viable partnership with the larger PF faction have equally felt let down by endless machinations of wanting to imitate what happened in Senegal with Bassirou Diomaye.
LEADERSHIP CRISIS
With the PF brand carcass in the hands of Miles and Chabinga, the true owners of the party have given up on any hopes of reclaiming the former ruling party. The leadership has demonstrated its resignation from pursuing this fight by attempting to experiment with UKA and later Tonse Alliance.
In Tonse, a very short-sighted decision was made to pick New Congress Party (NCP) as the only outfit through which PF and its allies would contest “all” current and future elections. It had to take only one by-election in Kawambwa for everyone to realise that choosing a single political outfit from a pool of alliance partners was in fact tantamount to promoting that one party at the expense of all others. It was another blunder, they needed to vacate it!
The fact that Tonse has entered the Pambashe by-election on FDD ticket, a party that recently joined the alliance, shows shifting of goal posts and a fundamental departure from the earlier announcement of using the NCP ticket. To save face, they have kept NCP in Petauke by-election.
Additionally, the recent rumours of bickering between two senior Tonse Alliance members regarding the use or misuse of funds during the Kawambwa by-elections, shows a weak foundation built on mistrust. If there is any truth to such infighting over money within Tonse Alliance, it could signal bigger problems that may as well spell the beginning of the end.
Even more worrying is the news that while the substantive Tonse Alliance leader is sick and seeking medical attention outside the country, senior members whose full identities we know, are now pushing the vulnerable ECL to announce Richard Musukwa as Alliance President.
The question that begs an answer is that shouldn’t these people be more concerned to ensure their leader receives the much-needed medical attention with a peace of mind instead of shoving names down his throat on his sick bed?
What is the family saying about all this, are they even aware of such machinations? Where were they when ECL was still strong, why didn’t they see the need to impress on him to name his successor? Did they have to wait until he is out seeking medical attention for them to start making frantic efforts about Musukwa or any other person?
It’s very clear that the Tonse Alliance may be facing leadership and later on a unity crisis that’s being tightly managed.
The bigger conversation is what should happen to the hardworking, loyal, patient and resilient PF members across the structures.
THE FUTURE OF PF STRUCTURES
The fact that many loyal PF members have resisted joining the ruling UPND, means the intact structures are merely waiting for a new direction to emerge within an opposition formation that guarantees them some form of comfort when they deliver victory in August 2026.
A bemba adage says “Isabi likonka amenshi.” Literal translation, the fish will always swim in the direction of the water. It’s possible at this point to project that as more conversations continue taking place among members of the Zambia We Want formation, UKA formation, EFF, SP, PF MPs, civil society, the Church and other stakeholders, an agreement and a possible announcement of a single flag bearer will see mass migration of PF structures that dream of becoming part of the new government next year, should there be such a change.
The move would be an ultimate win for all loyal PF members who have been yearning for direction and have given everything to the ideals of the party that they so loved and cherished.
As we conclude this editorial, we repeat, a united opposition has only up to April or June this year to put its house in order or start joining the UPND and kiss 2026 chances goodbye!