National Democratic Congress (NDC) president Chishimba Kambwili says President Edgar Lungu is dreaming if he thinks he is going to win the 2021 presidential election.

And Kambwili has warned that enacting the Constitutional Amendment Bill Number 10 of 2019 will foster bloodshed because of it has potential to cause confusion with the coalition government clause.

During an interview with Sky News, Sunday, President Lungu said opposition political parties were scared of him, hence their insistence that he should not contest the 2021 general election.

The Head of State also predicated that the opposition would lose after next year as government was working hard to improve Zambians’ lives.

But in an interview, Kambwili said it was difficult for any Zambian to vote for President Lungu, given the economic hardships ordinary citizens were enduring.

“Everyone is allowed to dream, even Mulyokela (Alex) dreams of forming government. But the people of Zambia will have the last laugh. Surely, under the current circumstances, if there is nothing that will be done drastically to change the current economic and poverty levels vis-a-viz high cost of living, I don’t see the people of Zambia voting for President Edgar Lungu. But anyway, every person has the right to dream, because you can’t stop anyone from dreaming and, obviously, President Edgar Lungu, I may just say when he was giving that interview (to Sky News), he was dreaming! What is on the ground in terms of PF is something else,” Kambwili said.

“You saw yesterday, Ministers went to Chingola to have a meeting, did you see how many people attended? Did you see ruling party Ministers, three to four Ministers and about five to seven members of parliament, members of the central committee went to Chingola, Kapisha, a high density area, where if I went today there will be no place for people to stand, there will be no space to stand if I went to have a rally in that area. People are showing them that they have no confidence in their leadership. But he is allowed to dream and make his wishes known.”

He recalled that both presidents Kenneth Kaunda and Rupiah Banda were confident that they were going to win the presidential elections during the 1991 and 2011 election campaigns, respectively, but then ended up losing.

“Even Rupiah Banda when he lost in 2011, he was saying he was going to win and that ‘Sata was scared of me (Rupiah Banda)’. Even with the MMD in 1991, it was so evident that even for a little child to know that people had changed; Kaunda had a lot of confidence, he was bubbling with confidence, even cutting his term short to show that he was popular. What happened after the elections? He said the women didn’t vote.
Kambwili urged President Lungu to rebrand the party with members that people trust for the PF to stand a chance of winning the 2021 general election. So, there are numerous examples I can give but all I can tell my friend, President Edgar Lungu, if he wants to win the elections, he has to rebrand the PF, completely rebranding it! Re-branding it to the extent that he cleans up a lot of cob webs and brings people that the Zambian people can believe in right from the top. But under the current circumstances, I can only call it a dream. And it was a very good dream although taking the dream too far to give it even to the public, instead of dreaming by yourself and keep your dream, you want the whole world to know you dream,” Kambwili said.

And Kambwili warned that enacting Bill 10 would foster bloodshed in the country.

“I am appealing to all MPs, I am begging don’t disappoint us! Bill 10 is not good for Zambia. Bill 10 in the future will bring bloodshed to this country because you know what it means, if they want a coalition government someone has the 30 per cent, another 30, others 20; so those who have more than others will always be asking the other parties to form government. It means that the leader will be in government in perpetuity, he will not come out! It will be like Kaunda forever! Is that what you want? The way we have suffered you would want the same people to continue?” wondered Kambwili, as he spoke to journalists following a court appearance in Lusaka, Monday.