30 per cent of MPs may lose seats – Nkandu
By Adrian Mwanza
UNITED Party for National Development (UPND) deputy spokesperson Elvis Nkandu says most members of Parliament will not return to the House after the August 13 general elections.
Speaking when he featured on Diamond TV’s Costa talk show, Nkandu said members of Parliament needed to reflect and correct their mistakes before the August 13 general elections, as most of them risk losing their seats.
He said statistics indicated that 30 per cent of the current sitting MPs would not return their seats.
He said President Hakainde Hichilema had warned that some of his ministers and MPs will not defend their seats.
“That should be a wakeup call for us politicians and we need take that advice seriously because in the past we have seen quite a number of ministers and even MP’s failing to return to Parliament,” he said.
Nkandu said it was clear that most of the MPs had performed well due to the increased Constituency Development Fund (CDF).
“…but maybe the problem could be the approach they had taken, which is why they may be facing those challenges,” he said.
He urged MPs to return to their constituencies and make peace with their constituents so that they could rectify the problem.
Nkandu said most MPs did not have good conduct and behaviour, which most people in the constituencies disliked.
“One other problem is that most MP’s do not interact with their people and they exhibit bad conduct,” he said.
And Nkandu said fielding a candidate not liked by the people had serious consequences, such as losing an election.
Nkandu said the victory in Kasama was good, saying the party worked hard to register a victory.
“You have to know that the president has changed the way to campaign in by-elections because in the past the entire State House used to shift to the constituency where the election was, and a lot of resources would be spent,” he said.
He said only a few ministers and MPs were used to campaign in the by-election.
“If I’m not mistaken, the President has only attended two by-elections and these are Kwacha and Kabushi the rest he just delegates,” he said.
