The Felix Mutati led MMD faction says it is an independent movement capable of beating the PF if an election was to be called, adding that the ruling party could not have won the August 2016 elections alone.

And Nakacinda says Zambian are still yearning for an opposition political party that will provide alternative leadership policies than the insults and hate speech that has characterised the politics in the existing opposition parties, with the exception of MMD.

MMD national secretary Raphael Nakacinda who recognizes the Finance Minister as the opposition party president, said MMD was the most popular party in Zambia when he featured on ZNBC’s Sunday Interview.

“MMD is a very much independent party and I can still confidently say that we are the most popular political party in this country. Yes most of our members may have defected to other political parties especially PF following our working relationship with the ruling party But we have some of our members who stood as independent MPs or may have defected to the opposition in the last election but they still identify themselves as MMD,” Nakacinda said.

“As for the question on whether our working relationship with PF is what is keeping us alive, we are very much independent and we can stand alone and still challenge PF because PF couldn’t have made it without us and if we had decided to endorse any other political party in the last election, there couldn’t have been a 50+1 win for PF in the first round because there could have been a re-run. Otherwise MMD is an independent party and even as we are in a working relationship with PF, we are still providing checks and balances like any other political party because that is what happens in a democracy.”

Asked if the opposition was up to the task in providing checks and balances, Nakacinda responded in the negative.

“The current opposition in this country has not met the expectation of the people. The Zambian people are really looking for alternative policies, they are not looking for alternative insults,slander, malice and propaganda, they are looking for solutions. But unfortunately, it looks like everybody, including the UPND, NDC are not doing that. But as MMD we have decided not to go that route because we don’t have the luxury that other political parties have that we would conduct ourselves or say things that Zambian people would not like because we are expected to know. We are the oldest political party in this country after UNIP and we’ve also governed this country for 20 years so we are expected to know even when we are providing checks and balances; we can’t make wild statement because we were in that seat for 20 years so we know how it works,” Nakacinda said.

And Nakacinda said he did not support the anti corruption crusade orchestrated by those who had been removed from office.

“The manner in which the call is being done, we have a difficult with it as MMD because the mouths that are alleging corruption against their colleagues in government are people who in this case, like we have the loudest mouth now on the scene honourable Kambwili. He was government Spokesperson and a very lethal government Spokesperson and defended everything that happened and was going on in the government. But just because he has been fired, he turns and says ‘no there is corruption’ and the issues that he has been revealing are issues that happened in the last two three weeks or months. So before we talk about the issue of political rhetoric, let’s accept as Zambians that corruption is not a political tool among politicians, it is a cancer that possibly is more dangerous than some of the diseases that we are afraid of,” he said.

“And that is the reality that we need to face as a people that we have a situation where our society, our morals, ethics and principles have gone in the wrong direction. Maybe hence the introduction in our new Constitution for part two of our Constitution to remind ourselves and maybe define our own principles as a country. I think we need to approach this matter differently other than just enjoying the drama of accusations between politicians. We need to reflect that as a society in order to change.”

And Nakacinda asked his fellow politicians to stop practicing politics of hypocricy.

“I think Zambia must be applauded, we have made tremendous progress in terms of our judicial system, tremendous progress in terms of our rule of law. There is nobody here who can claim that they can be victimised in terms of their business as long as they are following the laid down regulations. If somebody is running away, it may just be possible that they are guilty of something. At least in the recent past, there is nobody who can claim that they were unjustly mistreated in terms of their business. So the point I am making is the hypocrisy of having politicians who safeguard themselves but they don’t want to safeguard the interest of the people. If you sabotage the economy, who will be affected? It’s the poor. You yourself you are able to send your children to school, I think it is time for people to just be honest,” said Nakacinda.