The Felix Mutati led MMD faction’s national secretary Raphael Nakacinda says since the PF came into office in 2011, people are able to compare and see that the former ruling party performed better in many areas.

And Nakacinda says his party will not campaign for the PF during by-elections because the ruling party hasn’t invited them to do so.

In an interview, Nakachinda, who is a nominated member of parliament, said he was confident that people would vote for the MMD back into government because of their good record.

“Of course it is possible for people of Zambia to yet again give the MMD an opportunity to serve them in government. Sometimes a gift is highly appreciated when it is taken away, and actually in many times that is the case. When we were in government for 20 years, there was a new generation of voters who had not experienced anything in contrast with the MMD, so they thought that maybe there was something better outside the MMD but I think now that we have had our colleagues in government since 2011, there is a definitely a point of reference and comparison. And I am sure the things they felt we had not done well, they have discovered that we were actually doing very well. The MMD is the talk of the Zambian people in so far as our time in government is concerned and I can confidently say in many sectors, we still stand out as second to none,” Nakacinda said.

He said the MMD was focusing on mobilizing the grassroots at the moment and it would be a formidable force in any election.

“President Mutati and all of us in the MMD were given a mandate of up to 5 years from 2016 to 2021. So when we go to the convention, it will be an elective one which means that all positions will be up for people to offer themselves. So even when it comes to issues of candidature and something like that, all those matters will be addressed at the next convention. The only thing I can say is that so far so good, we have not engaged ourselves in activities that drain resources and time at the expense of rebuilding the party. The MMD at the grassroots, the machinery is getting effectively lubricated and we are very confident that the day we are going to make a decision to participate in any by election or any future election, we will be a formidable force,” Nakacinda said.

And Nakacinda said the MMD would not campaign for PF in by-elections, despite being in an alliance, because the ruling party had not requested them for help.

“Our independent position as MMD is that at the moment we are focused on rebuilding the party and we made a policy decision not to participate in by-elections, and that position has not been reviewed. We have not worked together in any by-election with the Patriotic Front only because obviously we have not been requested to help. But obviously our members know that we are in an alliance, they have always found a way of assisting the PF in the campaigns. But you have not seen officially senior MMD leaders going on the podium because order requires that there is a request or invitation, and then we participate in a more orderly manner,” said Nakacinda.

“The working relationship with the PF is still cordial, there is nothing dramatic that has changed, we supported them in 2016 and we were able to achieve victory by way of having President Edgar Lungu go through in the first round without any difficult. And that we remain proud of and we are continuing to strengthen our political party just like the PF are also strengthening themselves. We are people who operate on principle, we resolved to work with the PF in 2016 and that status remains so up to today.”