All People’s Congress (APC) president Nason Msoni has warned political parties forming alliances to always bear in mind that their next most bitter enemies are those that fallout from a failed alliance.

In a statement, Msoni noted that any reckless premature endorsements are a sure death nail of any progressive alliance.

“Political alliances are formed for various political reasons but fundamentally they’re formed to help leverage the political equation and ultimately takeover power. Ideally political alliances are a product of introspection after recognising the structural weaknesses in the constituent individual political parties and ultimately deciding to come together to fix and mend the deficit and become stronger to challenge the opponent. Political alliances are exceptionally sensitive to the environment in which they exist and therefore require more reasonableness, maximum restraint and sensitivity relative to the other partners in the alliance,” Msoni stated.

“Political parties going into political alliances should always bear in mind that their next most bitter enemies are those that fallout from a failed political alliance than possibly even the opponent they have been scheming to remove from power. This happens when the much anticipated political alliance goes horribly wrong. Reckless premature endorsements are a sure death nail of any progressive alliance and this is precisely what has suffocated most promising political alliances in Zambia in the past leading to the assertion that political alliances don’t work in Zambia.”

He observed that alliances affect the recruitment of other alliance partner’s members.

Msoni advised that political alliances must be built on the premise of a genuine spirit of give and take.

“Political endorsements in political alliances of individual political leaders tend to undermine the collective effort of other political leaders giving the impression that the formation has become a conveyer belt rather than a mutual front of leaders determined to fix the wrongs. Political alliances must be built on the premise of a genuine spirit of give and take. Political alliances do not offer an easy opportunity for recruitment of other alliance partner’s members that effectively kills off the trust. Political alliance partner members ought to avoid making political statements that suggest that they’re pursuing a double agenda whilst still in a subsisting political alliance. The PF and MMD faction alliance has run into trouble because of mistrust. The MMD faction has gone into a veiled attack on their political Partner and ally PF because they feel used, cheated and short changed,” stated Msoni.