President Edgar Lungu yesterday told the people of Sesheke in Western Province to either vote for the opposition and continue suffering or choose development by voting for the ruling party.

And President Lungu says he is very fit and able to stand on his own, contrary to assertions by the opposition.

Addressing a rally in Maondo, where he went to drum up support for ruling party candidate Dean Masule, President Lungu told Sesheke residents that they had until midnight to decide their fate.

“The reason why I came here is to assure you people of this area that PF wants to work with you. PF wants to bring development to this part of the country and all other parts of the country in order to leave no one behind. We have discovered that the opposition means no good for the Zambian people because they refuse their members of parliament to work corporate and work with us. So if you want to remain behind in the development agenda for Zambia, you should go ahead and vote for the opposition. You have between tonight and tomorrow morning to decide,” President Lungu said.

And President Lungu said he is fit and ready to stand on his own.

“[I know] that some of you are only here simply because of the lies you heard from the UPND that Lungu is a very tired man who cannot even stand on his own. I know that they have told you [a lot] of things about me but now that you have seen me for yourselves, I am sure you can now make up your minds to vote for us,” he said.

The President insisted that government under the PF could only take development to Sesheke if residents voted for the ruling party candidate.

“If you want to wait for development, come 2021, you can wait. But if you want to see development starting tomorrow, give us Dean Masule because when he comes to Parliament in Lusaka, he will be telling us that this is what you need. You know Dean, right? This man was born and bred here in Sesheke. He knows your needs because he also has the same needs as you. But the only difference is that Dean will be able to talk to me [when] other MPs from the opposition won’t talk to me. And since I want him to succeed, I won’t give him chance to rest, I will be on the impression that he will bring development to Sesheke. I don’t want him to fail because we promised the people of Zambia development throughout the country,” said President Lungu.

“Secondly, we are a very cultured group, in PF we respect people because we know that we are in this position because of you. We are not like those leaders who think they know everything and they have the monopoly of wisdom, no! We listen to you because we know that you know better what kind of development we should bring to you.”