The Patriotic Front’s internal report analysing the political situation in the country is faulty in many respects.
The analysis plays down PF’s problems. The PF has very big problems, which are not momentary irritations of the public but a complete distaste of the party and its leadership.
Projecting Edgar Lungu as a popular and likeable leader is being very dishonest. Edgar is PF’s main problem. He is unpopular. Edgar is seen by many people as being corrupt, cruel, tyrannical and undemocratic. He’s certainly not the PF’s strength – he’s its greatest liability.
The analysis also deliberately ignores the findings of the Commission of Enquiry on election violence and regional voting patterns.
In assessing the standing of political parties, the analysis focuses, almost exclusively, on the results of the 2015 and 2016 elections. It doesn’t seriously take into account the qualitative and quantitative changes that have taken place in the country’s politics. It ignores what has happened in and to PF since the 2016 elections. It also ignores what changes have taken place in and around UPND. The PF of 2016 is not the same as the PF of today. And equally the UPND of today is not the same as the UPND of 2016. Many things have changed both within and outside these political parties. People have left, people have come in. Chishimba Kambwili and Harry Kalaba have left PF and started their own political parties. GBM has left UPND and rejoined the PF.
In politics things develop ceaselessly. Who could have imagined that Michael Sata and the Patriotic Front who got about 3 per cent of vote in the 2001 elections, three months after being formed, would in 2006 nearly win the elections, beating the UPND – a party that nearly won the 2001 elections!
The analysis totally ignores emergence and existence of the Socialist Party. Is this right?
With the emergence of the Socialist Party, PF’s hold on Muchinga and Northern provinces is certainly no longer the same.
Similarly, with coming on the scene of the Socialist Party, UPND’s hold on Western Province is no longer the same.
And whether one likes it or not Kambwili and Kalaba have shaken the PF’s comfort with their ceaseless attacks and denunciations.
Things are changing every day without pause.
And all these changes matter – they can’t be ignored.