UPND secretary general Batuke Imenda says the ruling party is not threatened by the meetings which PF is having with various opposition political parties, arguing that the engagements are just politics of convenience without an agenda.

On Sunday, the PF leadership, led by acting president Given Lubinda met a consortium of opposition political parties to discuss various governance issues.

New Congress Party, Zambia Republican Party, Christian Democratic Party, National Revolution Party, United for Better Zambia, National Democratic Congress and Citizens Democratic Party were some of the parties which were represented at this meeting.

But in an interview, Imenda said the opposition political parties trying to form an alliance were a bunch of jokers.

“In 1991, the Zambians introduced the multiparty democracy through the MMD. All what those people are doing is practicing multiparty democracy. We are not in our wildest dreams as UPND to think that Zambia will go back to one-party state. So that is their democratic right to do what they are doing. There is an element of the agenda. UPND survived for 23 solid years in opposition. We have gone through a lot of hurdles and then we found a formula. First of all, when you start doing something you do it yourself as a singular party. When you form a singular party that is when you come up as friends,” he said.

“Whatever PF is trying to do is politics of convenience. It is a unity of convenience because they do not have an agenda. The Zambian people’s problems are economically related and what the PF failed to solve in their 10 years of power. Their biggest problem has been violence and corruption. From the time they lost power, have they addressed these issues and apologised to the Zambian people? They even have the courage of bringing in people who just yesterday were condemning PF on the same violence and corruption. Have they in the unity of purpose addressed the ills PF gave to Zambians? If not, then they are a bunch of jokers.”

Imenda said the ruling party’s focus was proving to Zambians that their economic future was guaranteed in the hands of the UPND.

“Secondly, as opposition political parties, you saw the results of last year’s elections and statistics do not lie. All political parties making friendships with PF, their votes combined, did they constitute anything that could be a threat? Look at those figures they could not even reach 2% of the total vote of Zambians. Zambians want issues to be addressed. You cannot come together just to fight another party in power. We fought PF on the basis of our economic agenda and good governance that is why Zambians voted for us,” said Imenda.

“You do not just gather some one-man parties and say you are making an alliance whose agenda is to fight UPND. UPND’s agenda is to prove to Zambians that they have not made a mistake and that their economic future is guaranteed in the hands of the UPND. So let them form as many alliances and partnerships as they can but the biggest judge is the Zambians. As far as we are concerned we are not even looking on our shoulders because they are an alliance of political nonentities. We are not fazed as the UPND.”