THE Patriotic Front in Eastern Province has appealed to the party’s central committee to do away with members of the committee that betrayed former president Edgar Lungu in the just ended general election.
Addressing journalists on Wednesday, provincial information and publicity secretary William Phiri said the party does not need recycled politicians in the rebranding process.
“As PF in Eastern Province, we will continue to provide checks and balances now that we are in the opposition. This is not the first time that we are going back to the opposition. We were in opposition before we ascended to power,” he said. “A call to rebrand the party is a welcome move. It’s a call countrywide that we should rebrand our party. I would like to appeal to all our members in the province to remain united, to show love and tolerance to one another.”
Phiri said there was no time for blame game.
“It’s time for us to regroup. We have been wounded. We have been embarrassed. We have been defeated. But what is more important is to stand up and be counted again. It’s not a matter of being grounded for life, but to stand up, dust off and remain focused as a party,” he said. “PF remains the strongest and the biggest opposition now. So we cannot afford to divide ourselves further. This is a call to all our members to remain united and to deal with recycled politicians. We do not want recycled politicians to remain in the rebranding of the party.”
Phiri called on the central committee to do away with its members who were sponsoring independent candidates.
“We are calling on the central committee to do away with members of the central committee that do not make sense. Members of the central committee who de-campaigned the party, members of the central committee who did not unite the PF. Members of the central committee
who betrayed the president. Members of the central committee who funded materially and financially the independents. These members of the central committee should be removed from their positions with immediate effect,” he demanded.
Phiri called for continued solidarity to party president Edgar Lungu.
“We will go up and go down with him because we still believe that he is a good man who was chosen by God to lead this nation. We will remain resolute to our call. We will remain in love with our president Dr Edgar Chagwa Lungu and we want him to guide the party accordingly,” he said. “We don’t want anyone to disturb the party president at the moment. We understand that there is a scheme to neutralise the party structures in Eastern Province which is against the etiquettes of democracy. We are calling on our ground structures to remain united and focused.”
Phiri said the true sons and daughters of Lungu had acknowledged and seen that some party officials were doing double standard politics.
“These that have betrayed the president and stabbed him on the back, we are not willing to work with them anymore. We have to deal with rotten elements in the Patriotic Front. We want a youth Patriotic Front to take over reigns of this party. The Patriotic Front remains an attractive party in Zambia today,” he said. “We have to go to the drawing board. We have to analyse what went wrong. Why we lost, what things we didn’t put in place and what are the things we need to put in place. There is a chance and a belief actually that the Patriotic Front might bounce back into office. We have no doubt because we have the numbers especially here in Eastern Province.”
Phiri said the PF has lost power but has not lost everything because they were still in the game.
“We are still in the game. We still have the MPs, councillors and mayors, council chairpersons. Yes, some of the seats are going to be nullified. We know because petitions have already started but remain steadfast as Patriotic Front,” he said.
Phiri congratulated the UPND for winning the just ended elections.
Phiri commended the people who voted for PF and those that did not vote for it.
He wished President Hakainde Hichilema God’s guidance as he leads the nation for the next five years.