PRESIDENT Edgar Lungu remains the PF’s sole candidate to contest the 2021 general election, he is like our Cristiano Ronaldo, because every defender is scared of him, says PF Lusaka Province chairman Paul Moonga.

Earlier this week, AVAP executive director Richwell Mulwani advised the ruling party to carefully analyze the Republican Constitution in terms of eligibility and address any uncertainty surrounding President Lungu’s eligibility to avoid chaos in 2021.

But reacting to Mulwani’s concern, Moonga insisted that President Lungu’s eligibility was a matter that had already been dealt with internally.

He wondered why everybody was so concerned about the President’s eligibility, boasting that the Head of State was the ruling party’s version of Cristiano Ronaldo and Barcelona’s Lionel Messi.

“Is that their baby? I think it’s stupid for anybody to be preoccupied about PF’s candidate! Why should people be concerned about Edgar Chagwa Lungu? He is a good player, we know, he is a good striker and he is a threat to every defender. Every opponent is scared of Edgar Chagwa Lungu. And there are counsels, all these lawyers, who are failing to understand the Constitution of Zambia. The Constitution is very clear saying that, ‘any candidate, who has not worked up to three years in office, is deemed as only someone completing a term of office for another candidate,’ he’s not even referred to as a former president. You are not a former Head of State if you have not been officer for a minimum of three years,” Moonga argued.

“AVAP should mind their own business and concentrate on educating voters. What chaos are they talking about? Why should there be chaos in the country just because Edgar Lungu is standing? Why are people so worried? AVAP should not just mingle into our political space without understanding all the things that are involved. Let them concentrate on what the organization was formed for, which is to educate people on apathy for voters. We have got lower turn out of voters in our elections so AVAP should concentrate on educating the people of Zambia on their right to vote. That is what should preoccupy AVAP, not analyzing the eligibility of presidential candidates. I have never seen AVAP on radio programmes or going to areas to teach people how to vote, that should be the preoccupation of AVAP, not what they are doing now.”

Moonga insisted that the ruling party’s central committee, along with all the party structures across the country, had resolved to adopt President Lungu as their sole candidate ahead of next year’s general election.

“For us in PF, our candidate is Edgar Chagwa Lungu. Even as central committee, we resolved that Edgar Lungu will be our candidate, and all 10 provinces of this country have resolved, all the districts in Zambia have resolved that our candidate is Edgar Chagwa Lungu. But any other person is welcome to challenge him at the convention. They can go and contest at the general conference because it is their right and we are not going to beat anybody. But they should be able to ask themselves: ‘how easy is it going to be for me when the delegates…’ mind you, it’s only delegates, who qualify to go and vote for you to become a presidential candidate. You can’t just wake up from the blues to say, ‘I am a candidate,’ you must be a delegate. People who qualify to challenge President Edgar Lungu are within the delegates and we are the delegates. It’s not just any Jim and Jack on the streets, who can say, ‘I have the money, I can speak nice English so I will challenge the President’; no! You don’t qualify, bwana, in the first place,” said Moonga.

“Even for you to go to the university, there is a cut-of point. It’s not every Grade 12 who can go to university. So, it’s the same thing, even in politics, you can’t just go and contest the Presidency. So, AVAP should understand these things and leave politics to politicians. Let them concentrate on their own. But as for us, Edgar Lungu is our ‘Cristiano Ronaldo,’ he is our ‘Messi,’ and every defender is scared of him!”