PF deputy spokesperson Frank Bwalya says UPND vice-president Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba is embarrassing his party asking people to vote for the rich.

Recently, GBM asked Zambians to vote for the rich in the next elections because “rich people can’t steal your money”.

But reacting to GBM’s remarks in an interview, Thursday, Bwalya said stealing had nothing to do with one’s economic status.

He said GBM’s line of reasoning was an embarrassment to the party he belonged to.

“First and foremost, to say that the elections are near is not correct, the elections are in 2021. So if Mr GBM is seeing an election any time soon, then people should be wondering whether he is in Zambia and leaves in Zambia and whether he is abreast with events in Zambia. Let alone, with the provisions of the Constitution in terms of how and when elections are held. Secondly, we are not surprised that he will talk about him being rich and therefore if he was given power and his team, they would not steal or they would provide greater leadership, its a very serious fallacy. That fallacy implies that those in PF are poor and that those in UPND are rich, its not correct. Its a serious flaw in the reasoning,” Bwalya said.

Bwalya wondered what kind of leadership GBM was showing with such kind of reasoning.

“There could be people with monies in UPND just as much as there are people there who don’t have a lot of money and they can be described as poor in every political party. As a matter of fact, there is no political party in the world that can claim that ‘all our members are rich’, it cannot be. But also to claim that if somebody has money, they cannot steal, that is not correct, that’s a lie. The poor people know very well, the rich people know very well that stealing has nothing to do with whether you don’t have or whether you have. So we look at those comments as misplaced and probably you should wonder that a vice-president of a political party that wants to form government can reason in that manner. It is a bit embarrassing I think on the part of the party he belongs to,” said Bwalya.

“Maybe UPND never disengage the campaign gear, but for us in the Patriotic Front, we believe that there is time for everything. When the time for campaigns come, we campaign effectively. When the campaigns are over, the elections are over, we get down to the ground to work and deliver on the promises we made to the Zambian people. So we are not perpetually in campaign gear, no! And Zambians will not take kindly to politicians who want to keep the country perpetually [in campaign mode] no. There is time to work.”