PEOPLE’S Alliance for Change (PAC) president Andyford Banda says governance under the ruling Patriotic Front has gone to the dogs to the extent that Zambians will not consider re-electing them next year.

On Wednesday, Defence Minister Davies Chama said he was confident that despite the numerous challenges Zambia was going through, voters would still re-elect the PF.

But commenting on Chama’s remarks, Banda argued that the ruling party was delusional to think voters would still consider giving them a vote.

“I think the Minister of Defence and all his entire bunch are delusional! They are not living in Zambia. I think they are living on another planet. They are not in touch with reality and they don’t understand democracy, that is the reason why they think that no matter how bad things are, it is okay for them to seek a vote despite the fact that people are suffering; despite the fact that from the time they took over government up to-date, things have got worse. We are deep in debt; we have a lot of unemployment; businesses are closing; the kwacha has depreciated and fuel prices have gone up. Yes, every country has got challenges; we had challenges during UNIP, but when a new government came in 1991, they brought in reforms that improved the economy of this country; the transport sector was improved, the economy was liberalized, they brought in democracy,” Banda said.

“So, you cannot justify your stay in office because they were problems then. And also, we benchmark you based on how you found it and how things are today. When they were campaigning prior to 2011, they said, ‘things were bad’ so meaning that they were going to improve things when they form government. They found the exchange rate at about K5.60 (per dollar) so what they were saying is that, ‘we can actually bring the exchange rate to K4 or K3.50 (per dollar). They found the prices (of fuel) at K7 per litre…they were saying, ‘we can actually bring the fuel prices to K5,’ and they found mealie meal prices at K40, they were saying, ‘the prices will be lower.’ But what has happened is the opposite; everything has over-doubled! They failed to deliver on the promises they gave to the people.”

And Banda lamented that governance under the PF had gone to dogs.

“Even our democracy is almost non-existent. We have seen what has happened with artists like Brian Bwembya, alias B-Flow, and others who have been voicing out about the things that are happening in this country, being told to apologize? What a joke! Governance under the PF has gone to the dogs! So shameless! Saying that people will vote for them? They are insulting the intelligence of the people of Zambia. That no matter how many times they mess us up, we will vote for them; that we are stupid and this is what Davies Chama is trying to insinuate,” said Banda.

“In any case, the idea of democracy is that when a group of citizens fail to deliver, there is need to elect another set of citizens to try and change things. The honourable thing for the PF to do is to say that, ‘we are not seeking for re-election next year, we are going to resign because we want to give a chance to another group of people to see if they can improve the people’s lives.’ But because of greed, selfishness and lack of vision, people just want power.”