UPND Secretary General Steven Katuka says it is irresponsible and childish for PF secretary general Davies Mwila to say until Jesus comes, the opposition party will never form government when his party stole the last election.

Addressing party officials in Kalabo district of Western Province on Friday, Mwila wondered why voters in that area insisted on voting for a party which was constantly losing elections.

“UPND will never produce a President until Jesus comes! 2001, it was Anderson Kambela Mazoka who tried, after that, when he died, HH took over, he lost in 2006 to Levy Mwanawasa, in 2008, he lost to Rupiah Banda. In 2011, he lost to Michael Sata, in 2015, he lost to Edgar Lungu, in 2016, he lost to Edgar Lungu. Even if you have confidence in him, how can you be voting for him for more than five times?” asked Mwila.

But in an interview yesterday, Katuka charged that the PF rigged the last election.

“That is what I would call waffling! No serious person can make such remarks because he has no authority over anybody. He is just an individual, he failed to make it himself in his constituency. That only tells you that the decision is for the people not for him. So even as secretary general, I don’t think he has any influence that can make people make a decision like that. How can he say that? Because Hakainde got half of this country even after they rigged. So now a lot of evidence is coming out to show that the elections were not credible, a lot of evidence has come out. You have heard how the votes were being buried. If they were popular, why didn’t they hold a credible, a free, fair, credible election and say we won?” Katuka asked.

“They stole an election and you can’t be a proud person if you steal. They also made sure that the petition was not heard, they blocked it so that the evidence doesn’t come out and they don’t lose power. So let him keep day dreaming, it is okay, it is the people to decide. Let us wait and see. You see you don’t speak before you get in the ring, any serious boxer says ‘let’s get in the ring first’. For him, he is just being childish, irresponsible and I don’t know which other words to use.”

He said PF was in a state of confusion because they stole the last election.

“I have been in Parliament where the people said ‘over my dead body, pF will never form government’. Where is PF today? What happened? It is the worst expected government that people thought would be in government. But by hood of crooks, they somehow got there, they are in government now. How about a party that has won elections twice? Mazoka won in 2001 you know what happened. Where is the credible loss? Is that what you can call a loss? Right now we can confirm to ourselves that we are confident that we won the last election. These guys, no wonder they are in a state of confusion now, they don’t know what to do,” Katuka said.

He said Mwila could not speak on behalf of Zambians.

“So who is he to speak on behalf of the people? I don’t think he is the voice of the Zambian people. He may speak for the PF only because he is a PF member but he can’t speak on behalf of majority Zambians. It is being irresponsible, being childish and unreasonable because he cannot be the one to decide. It is the Zambian people, they have the authority to decide whoever they want to be their President,” said Katuka.