CHAWAMA POWER BASE SHIFTS AS 575 DEFECT TO UPND
By Wagon Media – August 26, 2025
Chawama Constituency has witnessed a dramatic political realignment after 575 members from the Patriotic Front (PF) and Socialist Party (SP) abandoned their former parties to join the ruling United Party for National Development (UPND).
The mass defections, officially presented on Sunday, August 24, were presided over by Presidential Mobilization Team (PMT) National Coordinator, Bishop Burden Mfungwe, who hailed the development as a turning point for local politics.
Bishop Mfungwe praised President Hakainde Hichilema’s leadership for “restoring peace and stability” while noting that the Head of State had already fulfilled the majority of his campaign pledges.
“What you have done today is one of the most important decisions of your lives. President Hichilema has delivered 95 percent of what he promised, and it is now your duty to share that record with those still outside the UPND,” Bishop Mfungwe told the cheering crowd.
He further assured that the PMT would “deliver Chawama to the ruling party.”
Receiving the defectors, constituency chairperson Andrew Zulu, popularly known as AZ, welcomed them with a call for unity:
“From this day, there should be no discrimination. These are our brothers and sisters, and they are now part of us,” Zulu said.
Speaking for the new members, former PF Nkoloma Ward 1 coordinator Meleki Ntambo explained that they were drawn to the UPND because of visible development.
“Under PF, the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) was more of a rumour. Today, it is reality. I have seen the transformation myself — that is why I have left a party that is falling apart,” Ntambo declared, sparking applause.
With Chawama still under PF’s parliamentary control, the defections are being read as more than symbolic. They raise the stakes ahead of the next election, with UPND eyeing a constituency once considered an opposition stronghold.
For now, Chawama has emerged as the centre of shifting political loyalties — and Sunday’s developments show the ruling party is determined to tilt the balance of power in its favour.