[By Ben Mbangu in Sinazongwe]
SINAZONGWE UPND district youth chairman George Bbabi says it is shameful and suicidal for PF to think that his party’s poor performance in the recent local government by-elections reflects what will happen in 2021.
But acknowledged that the UPND, “I think we lost those by-elections in our stronghold because officials in those areas are dormant, they are not working. Surely how can we lose in an area where we have the MP, the council chairman and the councillor?”
In an interview, Bbabi said the PF should not cheat itself that it would win in 2021 because the people had already decided to vote for UPND.
“It is shameful and suicidal for PF to think that the poor performance of the party in the just-ended local government by-elections reflects what will happen in 2021. The performance of our party, UPND, in the just-ended by-elections is not the reflection of what will happen in 2021,” Bbabi said.
He said what was happening now where the ruling party was bribing voters used to happen even under the MMD regime which still lost to PF in 2011.
And Bbabi questioned what UPND officials were doing in areas they allowed PF to win by-elections, adding that it was a sign that they were not working.
“The biggest solution to this issue is for our officials in those areas to go down to the grassroots and start mobilising the people. Let’s talk to the people on the ground and youths must stop concentrating only writing rubbish on social media,” Bbabi said.
He observed that the problem in Zambia was that people only wanted to mobilise their political parties through social media by insulting one another.
“For us the UPND, I think we lost those by-elections in our stronghold because officials in those areas are dormant, they are not working. Surely how can we lose in an area where we have the MP, the council chairman and the councillor? It doesn’t make sense. Social media has brought a lot of problems in this country. You will find that people are just busy writing on social media instead of mobilising the people,” Bbabi noted. “You can’t win an election using social media, but you only win by mobilising, talking to the people face to face, not insulting one another. We must change our behaviour in order for our party to win.”
And Bbabi observed that most people vying to be voted into positions had preconceived conceptions that when elected there would be money put aside to pay them hence their failure to work or to mobilise the party.
“They just go into positions without knowing why they are there and that’s what is affecting us as UPND,” said Bbabi.