GOVERNMENT Parliamentary Chief Whip Brian Mundubile says the ruling party’s victory in the just ended Nangula ward by-elections in Western Province is a sample of how PF will defeat UPND in the 2021 general elections.

And Mundubile says the victory also proves that the people of Western Province want Bill 10.

In an interview, Mundubile said the continued defection of UPND councillors to the ruling party was an indicate that they had lost faith in the opposition.

“If at all there is a matter that is widely discussed and there is an election nearby, you actually get an indication of the confidence levels of the people through the vote. In this particular case, we basically have a year to go before the elections; but when you see the number of councilors that are defecting from the UPND, it clearly shows you that they do not have the confidence in the leadership. It doesn’t matter what someone says that people are being enticed. But if they are being enticed and there is only one year to go, are you sure those people wouldn’t reject the temptation and just wait for one year? If at all there was confidence that they would win elections, why can’t they wait for one year and just win the elections and they can be whatever they want to be or whatever they are being promised on the other side? What this means clearly is that people have no confidence in the UPND leadership, that is why they end up resigning,” Mundubile said.

“Western Province is one of the strongholds for UPND; but what you are seeing now are very interesting results. Look at how many by-elections they’ve lost in the recent past in Western Province, yet the UPND would want to advance an argument that for instance they are opposing Bill 10 because the people have rejected it. So the question that we have is that, which people are they speaking for? Clearly, they cannot say they are speaking for the people of Western Province because if these people were against Bill 10, they would have expressed their views through the vote. They would have voted for UPND because UPND is against Bill 10. So what message are the people sending? It’s very clear that the people do not agree with the many positions that UPND has taken on a number of issues including Bill 10.”

Mundubile insisted that the UPND’s loss signified the people’s displeasure on the party’s position regarding Bill 10.

“ If you look at the voters generally, they are young people. So youths are worried that UPND is going against amendments to Article 47 which creates safe seats for them in Parliament. So the youths in Western Province and specifically in Limulunga have expressed themselves to say they are not in support of the UPND that is fighting amendments to Article 47. If you look at the proportional voters, most of them are actually women, the women are also upset in Limulunga that the UPND is going against Bill 10 because then you won’t have women representation in Parliament. Then of course we have a huge number of the disabled people in our society, so they also stood up to go and vote against the UPND, just to express their displeasure of what the UPND is doing,” Mundubile said.

“So the message coming out of Western Province is a clear demonstration that the people of Western Province are not in support of UPND’s position especially on Bill 10. So we want to advise the opposition that let them go to the people and not impose the views of the few people on the majority because like I have pointed out before, over 60 per cent of the UPND MPs are in support of Bill 10 and they have been able to tell me that straight in the face. MPs are happy that through Bill 10, they will be able to go back as members of the councils because under the current Constitution, MPs are not members of the council. So MPs from UPND have also told me that they are support of that. Secondly, the MPs from UPND have also told me that ‘how are we going to campaign in 2021 if we go against the provisions of Article 47? Because the youths are going to rise against us, the women are going to rise against us, the disabled will rise against us…’ So clearly MPs from UPND are in support of Bill 10 for that reason, but they cannot say it publicly because they are scared that they may not be adopted.”

Mundubile advised the UPND to treat the loss in their stronghold as a wakeup call for 2021.

“What they are seeing now is exactly what will repeat itself in 2021. The people from their strongholds will begin to revolt because if at all those elections were in our stronghold, somebody would not say what I am saying now. So this is just a sample of what is going to happen next year to UPND because the people are not happy with them that they have taken a selfish position on issues to do with the Constitution and yet the Constitution is favoring the marginalized groups in most cases. The Christians countrywide including in Limulunga are very upset with the position that UPND has taken on Bill 10 because they are saying we are now beginning to entrench the Christian clause in the Constitution. So are the Christians going to be happy with UPND? The answer is obviously no,” said Mundubile.