The UPND is still capable of winning the 2021 general election without an alliance, says the opposition party’s Northern Province chairperson Nathan Illunga.

In an interview with News Diggers! Illunga argued that the UPND was not ready to change its presidential candidate and running mate because of an alliance.

He, however, explained that the 10-member opposition alliance’s unity was meant to forge a common front on issues of common interest.

“The essence of the political alliance is to fight these archaic laws together because what affects one political party, affects us all in the opposition, so we have to fight together. But when it comes to going into an election, I don’t think we are going into an election as an alliance because for us in the UPND, we have already adopted president Hakainde Hichilema as our presidential candidate and his running mate is GBM (Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba), and we are not prepared to change! Those are our candidates, and you remember in 2016, we were only beaten by a very small margin by the ruling party and we have already disputed those results; we are saying that was a stolen election! So, we are capable of winning an election in 2021 as UPND alone,” Illunga explained.

And he bemoaned the poor quality of roads being constructed in Northern Province by government

“The kind of development that PF is undertaking in Northern Province leaves much to be desired. When you talk about roads, we are being told by the authorities that the contractors who are working on the roads have not yet finished; they have not put up the drainage, and even the thickness of the roads is so small such that they are even being washed away by the rains; they have even started developing potholes, but when they are queried they are saying the contractor has not yet finished. But we don’t know when the contractor will come and finish the road, and as time goes by and the kwacha depreciates, it means we have to pay more,” said Illunga

“Agriculture here is a flop because even now, people are queuing up at the banks trying to get their money for the crops that they sold to FRA (Food Reserve Agency), most of them have not been paid. And now they can’t even cultivate, because for you to cultivate, you need money to give people to help you as well as money to access farming inputs, so I don’t even know how the harvest for the 2019-2020 season will be. So, under PF, agriculture is a total flop!”