● OPPOSITION UNITY SIGNALS TROUBLE FOR UPND, SAYS LUBINDA
PF acting president Given Lubinda says the ruling UPND is heading toward defeat, arguing that opposition unity has removed the structural advantage incumbents have long enjoyed in Zambian elections.
Lubinda believes recent electoral outcomes show voters responding to coordination rather than fragmented opposition politics. He argues that when opposition parties work together, the political equation changes significantly.
He highlights the Chawama by-election as evidence that voters are willing to reject incumbency when alternatives appear organised and credible. According to Lubinda, this trend reflects broader dissatisfaction with economic conditions and governance performance.
Lubinda says vote splitting has historically allowed ruling parties to survive elections without majority support. He believes that pattern is breaking as opposition leaders adopt disciplined strategies.
Economic concerns dominate voter thinking, he says. Rising prices and daily financial pressure are shaping choices more than party branding.
Lubinda urges opposition leaders to maintain focus and unity, warning that internal rivalry would reverse recent gains. He insists that consistency and cooperation will determine whether momentum holds through August.
He maintains that voters are prepared to make a decisive choice if given a unified option.
The problem with opposition especially PF and SP is that, you like equating everything you do with UPND instead of sorting out your own problems. To find or to see four opposition leaders eating together does not mean that they have now united, no. Already we have UKA, Tonse and People’s Pact, isn’t that a sign of disunity? Within PF, we have three factions led by Chabinga, Lubinda and of late Mundubile, leave alone Makebi Zulu. Mundubile doesn’t want to work with Lubinda because he sees Lubinda as a hindrance to his PF presidential ambitions after firing his people. You heard the words which came from Davies Mwila, they were not kind words to a leader of his party. Equally Makebi Zulu can’t work with Lubinda because both Mundubile and Makebi Zulu know very well that Lubinda can’t challenge HH although either of them too can’t challenge HH. Even if Lubinda is talking loudly after being resuscitated by Chawama win, deep inside himself knows that the trouble is with PF and not with UPND. The job which HH should have done to block or destroy the opposition has already been done by the opposition itself. UPND is enjoying the drama of watching the opposition destroying itself. Lubinda was asked to reinstate the people he fired, he refused and instead he appointed his own including Tasila Lungu as an MCC member. Then he went ahead to campaign under the disguise of FDD as a special purpose vehicle and won the seat. PF was excited and very happy thinking that the same formula will work in August to win back power without seeing the trouble that is with their party. Special purpose vehicle can work better at parliamentary level and not at presidential level. For you to stand as a presidential candidate under a special purpose vehicle or an Alliance, you should be a registered party president of a registered party of which Lubinda, Mundubile and Makebi Zulu are not any of those two, they are not registered presidents of any registered party. Their new MP will only be in Parliament for four months before its dissolution in May, 2026 and that’s when the real vigorous campaigns will start each party fielding the right candidate at both presidential and parliamentary levels and this is when people will see that things are not as easy as they are being said. Those MPs who voted for Bill 7 with the ruling party are not stupid, they knew what they were doing. Despite winning Chawama, many political analysts and visionary MPs know that technically PF is dead. Agree or disagree, this is the prevailing situation now and you will prove it after the dissolution of Parliament, very few MPs will risk their take to contest their seats under PF ticket otherwise many of them will opt to leave PF and contest on UPND ticket. So contrary to what Lubinda is saying, the one which is still in maningi trouble is himself and his PF faction and not UPND.