PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema has called on citizens to carry other people when going to vote for UPND candidates on August 13.

The Head of State has accused the opposition of using independent candidates to take away his votes.

President Hichilema has further told Solwezi residents to vote for the ruling party if they want a university in North Western Province.

Addressing Mwinilunga residents, Wednesday, President Hichilema told them to vote for him if they wanted to continue with the “good” work he had done.

“Now, If you want to continue with the good work that your UPND has done, you must continue voting for UPND. Let us continue the journey for tomorrow. Yesterday was difficult, today under your government, things are opening up. Tomorrow we must continue doing the good things so that those who have not been employed yet, can also get jobs. If you have not been employed, you are the next one to get a job. For us to do that, we must continue voting for UPND, we did that in opposition when it was difficult, we must do that now that we are in government. It was difficult in the past when we were in opposition, now we are in government, development is coming, bit by bit. We can’t do everything in one day, we have to do things one after another. And that’s the journey we are walking going forward,” he said.

President Hichilema warned that he could lose even by one vote.

“Now we’ve a lot of work to do, we vote for UPND candidates, suit and chain because Hakainde needs members of parliament to vote for things such as Bill 7. We don’t want members of parliament who don’t vote with the party and the President, that’s why we’ve made changes here, because without Bill 7, you would have not have had the constituency that you have now. You will not have the free education that you have, so we want loyal members of parliament and councillors. You must all turn out and vote on August 13,” President Hichilema said.

“Don’t vote for independents, vote for the UPND candidates, because these are the ones that will work with HH your lovely husband, cousin, brother and friend in Parliament, in the councils and elsewhere. The opposition are using the independents, they want to use the independents to take HH’s votes away from HH to the independents, that’s the issue, aikona man (no way man)… Don’t make a mistake, I told you that those independents are working with the opposition to take away the vote so that we lose. Hakainde can lose by one vote, everybody who had gone to independents, come back to the UPND”.

And speaking when addressing Solwezi residents, President Hichilema called on residents to vote for him and the UPND in a big way.

“I’m appointing you as my campaign managers, have you agreed to campaign for Bally and all the candidates? Now you must also turn out to vote in big numbers on August 13. When you go to vote, carry five, six, seven people with you so that we win with a landslide. Are you going to campaign? You are beautiful people here, North Western, Solwezi people, UPND is your party, it was formed here, so you must deliver and deliver in a big way,” the President said.

President Hichilema likened those who would want to go back to the PF to the children of Israel who wanted to go back to “eating well” in slavery.

“I can say many things, it was bad where we are coming from there, and we must not try to go back there, we must continue marching forward. As the children of Israel moved from Egypt in slavery to the promised land, they moved forward all the time. I know they were complaining all the time, I know they were complaining when Moses was taking them out, some where saying ‘oh, take us back to Egypt because we were eating well’, you were eating well in slavery. Some were saying ‘no, Moses there are no graves here in the desert, take us back to Egypt where there are good graves’. You want good graves when you are dead? There is a lot of things that we’ve done but there is a lot more things that we need to do going forward, we must continue going forward,” he said.

“In order to continue going forward, we must vote on August 13 so that we can continue doing the good things that we have already started doing. The work that we need to do is to continue working and finishing the University Teaching Hospital here in Solwezi. The job that we need to do after you vote is to bring a university here in Solwezi, North Western Province. Do you want a university here, you want a university here? You must vote on August 13 so that we can build a university here, we need to continue to do the roads here”.

The President joked that all the beautiful ladies in Mwinilunga, whether married or not, were his wives.

“People who love each other, people from Mwinilunga, do you love HH? I have seen a lot of beautiful girls here. HH’s girls, you’re my wives here. I want to see single women and ladies here, single ladies, where are you? You are HH’s [wives], for HH it doesn’t matter, even if they are married, those are my wives. For men your wives are somewhere there, these are my wives. Hakainde loves you, I want you to know that Hakainde loves you,” said President Hichilema.