ZAMBIANS ANGRY WITH UPND, HH
…Defeat of ex-ministers, ex-MPs a powerful message – Lubinda
By George Zulu
FORMER ministers and members of Parliament (MPs) who are losing primary elections for adoption are simply confirming deeper dissatisfaction among Zambians against the United Party for National Development (UPND) and President Hakainde Hichilema, says former Patriotic Front (PF) acting president Given Lubinda.
And Leadership Movement (LM) presidential candidate Dr Richard Silumbe says most UPND and PF former MPs will lose the August elections if they are re-adopted to contest.
In an interview with The Mast yesterday, Lubinda said he was not surprised that former ministers in the UPND and MPs, including those who defected and worked with Hichilema to destroy the country, were being rejected by the grassroots.
“And for MPs in the ruling party to tumble the way they are tumbling is an indication of the dissatisfaction of the Zambian people as expressed by the UPND structures. This dissatisfaction in the members of Parliament is only a symptom of the dissatisfaction in the presidency,” he said.
He said Hichilema, too, won the UPND presidency because of being an incumbent, warning that the ruling party should expect a shocker during the August elections.
“They may have given President Hakainde [Hichilema] an unopposed victory as a candidate simply because he is the incumbent, and using the influence of incumbency, he managed to squeeze through that unopposed selection,” Lubinda said.
He said the defeat of former PF and UPND MPs had sent an important message to the leadership about the way Zambians felt about the current government.
“I have followed and I’ve heard of a number of former PF MPs who decided to defect from the PF to join UPND. The tumbling is not a surprise to me because the truth of the matter is that there is no honour among them. They won their elections on the PF ticket and some of them, less than a month after the elections they chose to start working with the UPND, against the PF,” he said.
Lubinda warned that the level of disloyalty exhibited by those MPs was tantamount to the fallen Babylon in the Bible.
He said Zambians were not gullible to accept and respect people who were there to destroy the country.
“That level of disloyalty cannot be paid by anything else but disdain by the citizens. The Zambian people are not gullible. The Zambian people can read through these kinds. And the Zambian people are now indicating that they are not going to associate themselves with people who have no principles. This is a lesson to all of us politicians. If you dupe the confidence of the people you will reap disappointment from the people. That is what is happening right now,” Lubinda said.
And Leadership Movement (LM) presidential candidate Dr Richard Silumbe says most UPND and PF former MPs will lose the August elections if they are re-adopted to contest.
Dr Silumbe said the betrayal exhibited by MPs who had defected to the UPND after abandoning the trust of their electorate was painful.
He said the pain the people of Zambia had been swallowing in the last five years of betrayal had come out through the rejection of MPs and ministers for the second term of the UPND rule.
“As you are aware, we successfully filed our pre-nomination this week and we realised that Zambians are not ready to keep betrayals, Zambians are ready to defend their constitution and change the way they are governed and that is the more reason they have rejected those MPs and Ministers,” he said.
Dr Silumbe warned that no matter how much the ruling UPND would force its preferred and rejected candidates on the people of Zambia ahead of the August elections, they will not win Hichilema a vote.
“In fact, the President must pack his books from State House because he is gone and he is not coming back. His people have shown him already that they don’t need him. They have rejected the very people he appointed as ministers and those he stole from the PF to work with. So, what more about himself? He is waiting for an embarrassing defeat in August,” he said.
Most former ministers and UPND MPs as well as PF MPs who defected to the UPND have suffered heavy defeat at the hands of little known newcomers in the primary elections leading to adoption for the August general elections.
The former ministers include Jack Mwiimbu, Cornelius Mweetwa, Rodney Sikumba and Sylvia Masebo while the MPs include Michelo Kasautu, Twambo Mutinta, Mirriam Chonya and Robert Chabinga.
