CONGRATULATIONS UPND, OPPOSITION HAVE EYES BUT THEY CAN’T SEE
A KBN TV EDITORIAL
Say or believe what you want, but the ruling party out numbered and out performed the opposition in the just ended Kasama Mayoral by-election.
Failure has many fathers. Some pundits have already come up a theory to try and blame northerners for failing to retain the Mayoral seat previously held by the opposition.
To the contrary, numbers show that Kasama voters delivered an opposition victory which was merely fragmented!
A combined top three opposition tally (FDD: 14,302 representing 34.03%, CF: 4,405 representing 10.48% and UPPZ: 2,988 representing 7.11%) would have collectively handed a united opposition win with 21,695 votes against UPND Alliance’s 17,647 votes which put them in front to win the highly contested Mayoral seat in Kasama.
Essentially, the picture above demonstrates that had the opposition worked together as a coalition, UPND would have lost in Kasama.
A fragmented opposition now licking its own wounds, was no match for the UPND.
The UPND was in it to win. The Chawama Parliamentary by-election loss was too bitter to be repeated. They needed to have reason to believe that they were still loved by the masses and Kasama was the litmus test.
Therefore, they took the assignment seriously. They had presence, they deployed their best available arsenal. An army of branded and well equipped cadres was present.
Sibongile Mwamba as serving Member of Parliament, campaigned against her sponsoring party. Elvis Nkandu, Chipoka Mulenga, Frank Tayali, Levy Ngoma, District Commissioners, to mention but a few, were all present till the last whistle.
To the contrary, a fragmented and resource starved opposition went into Kasama, each trying to prove a devastating and costly miscalculation of their own relevance.
The result of Kasama, instead of strengthening the opposition’s disposition, is a resounding hollow slap in their faces collectively, and a mockery to their narrow partisan interests that are devoid of a national character.
Opposition figures casually strolled into Kasama, showed face and took the next available flight back to Lusaka while leaving a hungry and victory starved ruling party machinery intact on the ground.
The ruling party took Kasama as a proof of concept and it worked. It gave them insights on what they need to do even if it means winning by a narrow margin in August.
They plucked a template: deploy, motivate cadres, dominate, spend, capitalise on rural hunger and desperation, stay on the ground and defend the vote until the last day.
If Kasama were the results of the August 2026 general elections, UPND would have won by a slender margin or at most forced a rerun.
The 17,647 final tally they harvested only represents 41.99% which is below the 50+1 threshold required to secure a win.
On the flip side, a combined top three opposition tally (FDD: 14,302 representing 34.03%, CF: 4,405 representing 10.48% and UPPZ: 2,988 representing 7.11%) would collectively have handed a united opposition win of 21,695 in Kasama.
Essentially, what this means is that had the opposition worked together, UPND would have lost Kasama.
We therefore disagree with those who want to launder the opposition malaise and blame northerners for a UNPD win in Kasama
Northerners turned up and voted for the opposition, but a fragmented opposition squandered the win. Stop blaming the northerners. Leave them alone and blame the inconsistent, fragmented and self-serving opposition.
The job has been cutout for Levy Ngoma and UPND: divide the opposition, fragment their vote and win the August 2026 elections.
You can look at it that way, but i would say , for instance, uppz voters did not like either cf, sp, fdd, or upnd candidates as the case is.
Also I can say may be uppz, sp, cf should’ve worked with upnd to completely destroy fdd. How about that?
Yes.Imwe tu KBN,Its fallacy to assume that if all opposition alliace partners had ganged up against UPND,all the Kasama voters in the opposition camps would have voted the same way.Many voters would not like to vote for anyone touched byFred Membe and so would have taken their vote to UPND.
And shame on Archbishop Iggy Chama
My thoughts exactly. Some people have this misconception that every opposition member supports other opposition parties, should their party not participate in an election, which is completely wrong. People have many reasons why they support political parties, and it’s not automatic that they will support the united political if the parties merger. One may be surprised that some even support the ruling party in an event of merging the opposition parties.
The writer is completely misleading the masses, Kasama is not Zambia what rerun is talking about, Kasama is the stronghold of the PF but lost Does he even know how Dundumwezi vote does he think if the opposition unit will match the GRZ impossible because those margins can be cancelled by just adding Mongu or Katuba & Keembe
Just accept you have lost the general election by a wider margin do not even try comfort yourselves the writing is on wall
Look, PF, just by the mention of the party, raises goose pimples. It was a selfish and brutal party. A party that promoted division and tribalism. Zambians reject tribalism because they know tribe will never help them but give jobs to those cruel, ‘Do you know me? Do you know who I am?)’ Fellows who will steal and flee the country as many have already done.
Actually, Zambians are looking out for any sign of PF blood in any party and immediately pushing it ‘Kuwaya’.