PF secretary general Davies Mwila says the ruling party’s performance in the by-elections is an indicator of how it will perform in the 2021 general polls.
And Mwila says the PF will only adopt candidates that are popular on the ground, saying it will be difficult for anyone to corrupt all party committees to secure an adoption.
Speaking when he met councilors in Kasama, members of the PF Northern Province Mobilization team, the Northern Media Team and party security wings, Wednesday, Mwila advised PF members to work hard and campaign aggressively in the coming by-election in Lukashya to ensure a landslide victory.
The Lukashya seat fell vacant following the death of independent member of parliament Mwenya Munkonge last month.
“We are going to adopt the most popular candidates on the ground. We already have a system in place to find out who is the most popular on the ground. We are not going to impose candidates,” Mwila said.
“No one will buy his or her adoption. No one can afford to corrupt the Constituency Committee, District Committee, Provincial Committee and Central Committee. No one can afford to corrupt all those committees. You must win the forthcoming Lukashya parliamentary by election with a landslide victory. You must win with a huge margin. These by-elections will indicate the outcome of the 2021 general elections.”
He said reelection of party officials in the coming intra-party polls would only be determined by their performance in the by-elections and advised that the Northern Province elections would be held after the Lukashya by-election.
“Intraparty elections will soon be coming with strict adherence to COVID-19 preventative measures. Very soon, the PF National Elections’ Committee will be getting into Muchinga Province to conduct them. But for you Northern Province, intraparty elections will come after the Lukashya parliamentary by election, hence the need for you to make sure you win this by-election with a huge margin. Winning Lukashya by election will be one of the things you will be pointing at to be reelected in intraparty elections. Those who are hardworking will surely be re-elected into their positions. Only the underperforming ones must be voted out of their positions. It will be very crazy to vote out a winning team. Even in football, they only substitute underperforming players,” Mwila said.
And the secretary general has urged party members to get involved in the mobile National Registration Card (NRC) issuance exercise by sensitizing and encouraging youths to obtain their NRCs.
“Mobile national registration will start on 8th August, 2020. They were supposed to start on 1st August, 2020 but they needed to put in place some logistics. Therefore, I’m urging you to get fully involved in mobile national registration. Sensitize and encourage as many youths as possible to obtain national registration cards. Encourage even those who have lost their national registration cards to go and obtain new ones. Without national registration cards, youths won’t be able to get registered as voters. They won’t get voters cards,” said Mwila.
“As the PF Secretariat, we will do anything possible to help sensitize as many youths as possible on mobile national registration.”
Mwila was accompanied by PF National Elections Committee chairperson Yamfwa Mukanga, Member of the Central Committee Musonda Mpankata, PF National Youth chairperson Kelvin Sampa and PF Malole member of parliament Christopher Yaluma.
