PF Secretary General Davies Mwila says he never promised to resign if NDC won the Roan parliamentary by-election.

And Mwila has described the ruling party’s defeat in the just ended by-elections as a painful setback, adding that the opposition alliance strategy has worked.

Meanwhile, President Lungu, through his spokesperson Amos Chanda, has congratulated Chishimba Kambwili and the NDC for beating PF in Roan.

Speaking during a press briefing at the party secretariat, Friday morning, Mwila said there was no justification for him to resign.

This was after a Radio Phoenix reporter Pruedence Siabana asked him if he was going to honour his campaign promise of resigning if the NDC defeated PF in Roan.

“Who quoted that? Who said I was going to resign? People had said I was going to resign, but I never said that, and there is no justification for me to resign,” said a somber looking Mwila.

“Me I can tell you, people don’t want to face facts. You can’t continue winning without losing. Us we have only lost one, the UPND have continued losing. And when we win, no one has come to congratulate us.”

Mwila, who thanked the people of Bahati for giving PF a landslide victory, admitted that the opposition alliance strategy had worked against his party in Roan.

“We celebrate our success with thanksgiving to the people of Bahati and structures in the Province. We vow to remain faithful to them and we will continue to engage them and work with them in the interest of development. We also pay tribute to the foot soldiers, our grassroots membership and structures as well as the well-able campaign team for their hard work and determination. We also thank the candidates from all the political parties involved in this election for conducting peaceful campaigns. This is how it should be always and everywhere. PF has once again demonstrated that it is possible to win elections without violence and bloodshed,” said Mwia.

“We congratulate the NDC and UPND for their joint victory for in Roan Constituency by way of a protest vote that has been handed to the Patriotic Front. The result did not go our way, but we still receive it with thanks giving and we shall be going back to Roan Constituency to thank the people. We shall re-group, re-strategize and re-launch ourselves in Roan. We will carry out a postmortem of this painful setback and we will ensure that we regain our footprint in the Constituency. Most importantly, we know the issues that led to this protest vote, we will go back and listen to ensure they are attended to. We will take time to listen to our people including those who have been continuously fed on deceit… This is merely a setback; We are poised for a major comeback!”

Meanwhile, President Lungu, through Chanda, congratulated Kambwili and the NDC for beating PF in Roan and called for an introspection within PF.

Chanda also announced that the Head of State had assented to the National Dialogue Bill.