UPND deputy secretary general Patrick Mucheleka says Patriotic Front ministers are hallucinating that they will win the 2021 elections by 65 percent when Zambians are angry and hungry.

Commenting on the remarks by the Housing and Infrastructure Minister Ronald Chitotela that President Edgar Lungu would win by 65 percent in 2021, Mucheleka wondered who would vote for the PF.

“As UPND we have read and heard what Chitotela said that Lungu will win by 65 percent in 2021. First and foremost, Lungu’s eligibility is still in court. The court will actually decide whether of not Lungu is eligible. As far as we are concerned, he is not eligible. They are talking about 65 percent, where will this 65 percent come from? Let Chitotela continue hallucinating. Chitotela and PF must be aware that the Zambian people are very angry and hungry. They are hungry because they have no food in their homes. There is no money in the economy. At the same time people are angry with PF because of unprecedented corruption,” he said.

“When Chitotela talks about 65 percent, he is dreaming and thinking [about how] they are going to rig again. There is no Zambian who will allow the useless ECZ that they will use to rig elections. That won’t be allowed. ECZ in its current form is useless. The fellows that are there are PF cadres and they think that they are allowed to rig elections for 2021. They will not be allowed. We shall push for reforms. We want free and fair elections presided over by a credible institution that can be respected by all stakeholders. In its current form, ECZ is useless, its rotten and rotted to the core it has to be reformed.”

And Mucheleka wondered how the PF was taking pride in continued borrowing instead of growing the economy.

“Chitotela boasted that they will continue borrowing. No one has been against borrowing. But even when we borrow, we must be able to borrow for good reasons and we must use the borrowed resources prudently. At the moment, borrowed money is what PF is using to steal. They are engaging in high levels of corruption. As we speak, as a country, we are already sitting on a very huge heap [of debts] such that even the PF itself have no idea how the borrowed funds will even be repaid. They have no plan whatsoever,” he said.

“Chitotela should have been talking about growing the economy so that we begin to implement our country’s developmental agenda using our own domestic resources. They have no idea whatsoever on how to grow the economy. The agriculture sector has collapsed, the manufacturing sector has collapsed, the private sector is not functioning. Because of corruption they have even driven away the foreign direct investment. So it’s such a shame and a tragedy that we can have a minister who stands in front of people, excited and talks about how they will continue borrowing. What a tragedy. This country is in shambles economically.”

Meanwhile, Mucheleka said the Young African Leaders Initiative was an extension of PF.

“YALI is an extension of the PF. Those are PF cadres. They are PF, they can refuse by saying [that] ‘we are not PF’ but all their activities are indicating that they are very partisan. These are PF chaps that have misused money from the donors and they are trying to think that they can get money from PF. I know these fellows. These are just PF cadres that have been hired by PF to do the duties for them,” said Mucheleka.