PF secretary general Davies Mwila has bragged that the ruling party has already scooped two seats following the failure by some UPND candidates to file in their nominations in Western and North-Western Provinces, perceived to be their strongholds.

And Mwila says the stance by UPND to go ahead with their campaign rallies, shows that they do not care about people’s health.

On Wednesday, Nalolo constituency UPND aspiring member of parliament Namenda Siyanga and UPND aspiring candidate for Mufumbwe Council Chairperson Kajilo Muzungu both failed to file in their nominations after they failed to produce all the documents required by ECZ.

But in an interview, Thursday, Mwila bragged that PF had already scooped the said two seats.

He however, charged that failure by the UPND candidates to file in their nominations in their strongholds was a clear indication of how disorganised the party was.

“If you look at what was happening in North and Western Province, UPND is going to suffer in their own stronghold. Maybe you are not aware that they failed to file for parliament in Nalolo, they have failed. They also failed to file in Mufumbwe yesterday (Wednesday). So those two seats are ours already. We have scooped two votes already in their own stronghold, not in our stronghold but their own stronghold, that is why we are very much confident because UPND is disorganised,” Mwila said.

And Mwila said UPND’s pronouncement that the party would still hold their campaign rallies despite the COVID-19 pandemic, showed that they do not care about people’s health.

“They don’t care for the lives of the people, they want our people to continue dying. For us we will not do that, we will not hold rallies and we have made a decision as a party based on the guidance given by the Electoral Commission of Zambia and Ministry of Health because the lives of our people are very important. Those are the people who vote, so if they die before voting what happens? We want to protect the lives of our people so that come 12 August, all of them will vote and everybody will be happy. We have to protect the lives of our people and we are going to stick to that,” he said.

Mwila further said the ruling party was not threatened in any way by UPND as it was not the first time they were going head-on with the opposition party in a general election.

“UPND is not a threat. This is not the first time we are going in elections with UPND, 2011 we went with them they lost, 2015 we went with them they lost even in 2016. So this is the fourth time and it’s not new to us. The ground is very fertile for us and [we are] very confident of retaining power. They always tell us that they will win but they end up losing. So we will have to retire him (HH) now finally, once and for all. He lost in 2006, he lost in 2008, he lost in 2011, he lost in 2015, 2016, he has lost about five times. So how is he going to win? In Zambia you cannot win with one or two provinces, you need to have the majority. You need to have six or seven provinces to win the Presidency,” he said.

Mwila added that President Edgar Lungu’s running mate had more credentials than UPND’s Mutale Nalumango, which he said, gave PF higher chances of winning the elections.

“And if you look at their running mate and our running mate in terms of credentials, our running mate has got more credentials than their running mate. So we have a bigger chance, we are the defending champions and we have delivered to the Zambian people. We want to continue with the promises that we intend to make through our manifesto that we have come up with” he said.

On Wednesday, UPND chairman for elections Gary Nkombo said the party would hold rallies.

“Time ya campaign yayamba si so? Nifuna tipangane. Ba ECZ banakamba kuti ‘we are discouraging rallies’. Ife takana. Ife it will be business as usual. Tiza ka mpena until 11th August. Kulibe lamulo yamene itilesa kukumana. Chikulu tifunika kuvala utu. Kulibe kapokola, kulibe muntu azalesa meeting because lamulo ya dziko yavomela, campaign yaseguka.) (This is time for campaigns isn’t it? ECZ said they were discouraging rallies but we have refused, we will hold rallies. It is business as usual we will campaign until 11th August. There is no law that restricts us from meeting. So no person or police officer can restrict meetings. What is important is that we wear face masks),” said Nkombo.