ANDREW Banda says most leaders in the PF are in politics for themselves rather than service to Zambians.
And Andrew, a former diplomat and opposition UPND senior member, says Hakainde Hichilema, currently with 47 per cent national vote is more popular than Michael Sata was in 2011 when he was elected President with 42 per cent.
In an interview, Andrew noted increased resignations of UPND councillors in Western Province, induced by the Patriotic Front.
He said the PF had been buying councillors to create an impression that they have become popular in the region.
He said young councillors were being duped into schemes of being bought for the belly.
“The one spearheading this evil and unpatriotic crusade is no other than the entire Honourable Professor Geoffrey Lungwangwa, who too has been bought. I wish to state clearly that all the above has history. It has happened before. The sad part is that the majority of the leaders in the Patriotic Front only came into politics after Michael Sata become increasingly popular and they rode on his popularity which won him the presidency with 42 per cent after attempting three times,” Andrew said.
“The architects of multi-party democracy, I can remember were the late husband of the current Republican Vice-President Inonge Wina, Arthur Wina, Mr Michael Sata, Derrick Chitala, Samuel Mukupa, Dr Guy Scott, Akashambatwa Mbikusita Lewanika, late Baldwin Nkumbula, Vernon Mwaanga, Brigadier General Godfrey Miyanda, among others. Some of the prominent people in the PF today like Freedom Sikazwe, Chitalu Chilufya, Bwalya Ng’andu, Bowman Lusambo, Sunday Chanda and others were not involved. Some were young, not interested in politics or simply cowards and therefore may not understand what multi-party democracy is all about.”
Andrew said in the 2006 general elections, with 148 seats contested, MMD won 72 seats, PF had 43, United Democratic Alliance (UDA) an alliance of UPND, UNIP and FDD, had 26 seats.
He said Hakainde Hichilema, for obvious reasons, was candidate of the UDA.
Andrew said the National Democratic Focus won one seat and three independents. Two seats were delayed due to the death of candidates and were later won by MMD in the by-elections.
“Here is the party with 26 seats in Parliament in alliance and the new president HH had only 20 per cent of the vote and today in 2016 his popularity has risen to over 48.6 per cent short by less than 2 per cent what Edgar Lungu yielded, note that the elections were disputed,” Andrew said. “In essence, this means that at the moment HH is the most popular opposition leader in the country. HH is even more popular than late president Michael Sata who become president with 42 per cent.”
Andrew said Levy Mwanawasa became president with 37 per cent of the total vote caste and after he died, MMD won by 36 per cent.
He said Western Province was the poorest province in the country and people there were more vulnerable to bribes.
“We are not surprised that young councillors have fallen prey to being bought by the Patriotic Front to create an impression in people’s minds that they are making in-roads in the province, to hoodwink them,” he said.
Andrew said even the most powerful party in Zambia’s history, UNIP, lost to MMD by the figures illustrated above.
He noted that the MMD too, despite having the support of 23 PF members of parliament who were eventually declared rebels owing to their stance on the National constitutional conference, lost to the Patriotic Front.
“The Patriotic Front went on to overwhelmingly win the general elections under Sata, again the MMD had the advantage of incumbency,” he noted.
He advised people of Western Province to resist the temptation of being bought by “these evil, uncaring, irresponsible, desperate lot who want to cling on to power at all cost.”
Andrew asked why people would want to waste public money to buy councillors or members of parliament and subsequent costly by-elections at the expense of national development.
Andrew said the PF had employed all tactics to malign Hichilema and UPND but had failed.
He said the PF had used all sorts of propaganda in their desperation to cling on to power.
“They have called us and our leader, HH tribalist, Satanists, unpatriotic et cetera. They detained our leader for treason for no apparent reason, among others, but the popularity of our party and our leader keeps rising, implying that Zambians are not interested in politics of hate,” Andrew said.
“All I am saying is that it doesn’t matter what the PF does, they will lamentably lose against the people of Zambia, via UPND, with God’s grace in August 2021 general elections. Zambians are simply fed up of them for colossal factors.”
Andrew reminded UPND members that what was talking place in Western Province was not new.
“Some of our MPs in the early twenties defected to MMD in Western Province for a meal, but in subsequent general elections all the seats were won back by our party, UPND,” said Andrew. “The PF may be myopically dreaming that they have become popular in Western Province by buying our councillors and causing unnecessary and costly by-elections, they too will lose all their seats in Western Province. I challenge any buffoon from the PF to argue with the facts and figures above.”