PF MOBILISATION committee vice-chairperson Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba says voting for UPND in the upcoming August 12 general election will be a waste of time because the party is destined for another loss.

In an interview, Mwamba, a former UPND vice-president, said UPND members had become fatigued with the party’s continued poor performance during elections.

The UPND recently suffered embarrassing electoral defeats in selected parts of the country, normally considered their strongholds.

In ward by-elections conducted on January 4, the PF’s Martin Malikana scooped Luola Ward of Kalabo District, with 368, beating the UPND’s Simakando Nalishebo who polled 354 votes.

In Kaimbwe Ward in Kasempa District, North-Western Province, the PF candidate Shimikila Keagan got 356 votes, while the UPND’s Innocent Kakona polled 228 votes.

However, the UPND successfully managed to scoop Maramba Ward in Livingstone District where party candidate Evans Sakala got 578 votes compared to the PF’s Florence Samasumo’s 465 votes.

Commenting on these results in an interview, GBM said UPND members were fatigued with their leaders.

“You see why people have decided, even in the UPND strongholds, why are they losing? They are fatigued with their leaders. They know that they are not taking them anywhere. So, they have decided, now, to join the band wagon of President Edgar Lungu, who has brought in a lot of development. The second reason is that the UPND leadership is self-centred. So, really, the party is not going anywhere as far as I am concerned. So, PF will continue in government, even after 2021. Believe me or not, people know that President Lungu is a better leader than the other one. So, this coming general election, PF will win with a landslide victory! The gap between UPND and PF will be very wide. They will be embarrassed,” Mwamba said.

“When you are losing, what does that mean? It means you are not popular, people don’t want you. Like I earlier stated that people are fatigued with one political party, which has never succeeded before, it is always losing. Even yourself, would you mind voting for a party that you know won’t win? It is wasting your time! To stand on the queue for six hours, it is a waste of time. So, this is what their people have realised in their strongholds that it is a waste of time, even wasting time instead of going to the fields, you stand in the queue for a party you know that it will lose? Even this time around, those, who are going to waste their time to vote for UPND, they should know that they are voting for a losing party! You can see from the recent results that have come out from the by-elections.”

Mwamba said UPND would lose this year’s election badly because the PF had infiltrated their strongholds.

“As far as we are concerned, those are not their strongholds. In fact, we can share or even get a bigger share than them. The people also get fatigued. What will happen is that, in their strongholds, people may not go and vote because they know they are going to waste their votes, casting their votes on a party that will lose. The whole essence of voting, we go to vote because the party is going to win or is likely to win. But in this case, the party they are going to vote for is not even likely to win and will never win so why waste your votes? So, put yourself in my position and others, those who are doubting. This is what will make them lose badly this time. They will lose badly because their own people know the UPND leadership is not taking them anywhere,” he said.

And Mwamba argued that Zambians had realised that the country’s poor economy had not been necessitated by bad governance, but by “international factors.”

“The poor economy has not been brought about by the Patriotic Front, people who have travelled, or those that watch CNN and BBC, they know what is happening worldwide. It is a world phenomenon, it is a problem that has affected the entire globe. So, the economic problems are not in Zambia, in fact, in Zambia, because of President Edgar Lungu, we are doing fairly well. Go to Zimbabwe, go to South Africa, which is a stronger economy by maybe 10-fold of Zambia’s economy, but they are underperforming, and it is not something of their own making. I think Zambians have realised that it is not because of the bad governance,” argued Mwamba.