United Party for National Development (UPND) Spokesperson Charles Kakoma says nothing will stop his party from forming government in 2021 because Zambians can’t wait to kick the Patriotic Front out of power.
In a report generated by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) on June 12, 2019, it was observed that UPND was unlikely to win elections in 2021 because the party had lost its way after the 2016 elections and that the only hope UPND had to win the general elections in 2021 was a merger with other opposition parties.
The EIU further projected victory for President Edgar Lungu in the 2021 Presidential and general elections which was likely to be attained through eroding of democratic checks and balances by the ruling party and its supporters.
But commenting on this report in an interview, Monday, Kakoma said it was impossible for PF to win the 2021 polls.
“The UPND is going to win the 2021 Presidential and general elections and we will win by a landslide. Obviously, we need to work very hard to achieve that objective and we will need a lot of support from all well meaning Zambians. The alliance is already there, we need everybody involved. This country has been divided by the PF and the only way we can unite this country is to carry everybody on board and therefore, it requires an alliance of the right-minded people to come together to make this happen. So we need more people to come and join the alliance so that we ensure that PF leaves and leaves for good,” Kakoma said.
Kakoma said his party had become a lot more popular since 2016 owing to the manner in which the ruling party was managing the affairs of the country.
“UPND has not lost ground at all, we are actually gaining ground. It’s just that some of these things are not reported. But the truth is that UPND is becoming popular everyday. It is the PF that is actually losing ground. People are not happy with the performance of the PF and they are looking forward to voting for UPND. Most of the people that voted for PF in 2016 will not vote for them in 2021. But we are sure that the majority of those that voted for the UPND in 2016 will still vote for UPND in 2021. People had given the PF a chance to perform but they have since concluded that these people are failures. PF has failed to improve the economy of this country and they don’t want to come out in the open to agree that they’ve failed to maintain civil servants. Those of the civil servants who want to be brave and fight for what is truly theirs are being victimised and retired in national interest. So now people are just quiet waiting for 2021 to come so that they can vote PF out,” Kakoma said.
Kakoma said it would be almost impossible for PF to stay in power beyond 2021.
“There are so many of these interest groups that are dissatisfied with the performance of PF. So we don’t see the PF turning the sides in their favour. Actually where we’ve reached in terms of the economy, it is not possible for PF to turn around the economy because the economy is already destroyed. And as a result, things have continued to get bad…the external debt has continued to go higher and so that means things will continue to get uglier. Therefore, things will continue to worsen in this country. So for us we don’t see this PF government turning around everything just prolong their stay in power,” said Kakoma.