VICE-PRESIDENT Inonge Wina says the PF will no longer accept any attacks on the party from the UPND.

Speaking in Mongu, Western Province, when she met party officials among them PF aspiring candidates at various electoral levels in the province, Wednesday evening, Vice-President Wina said it was unfortunate that the UPND were spreading falsehoods that she was chased out of the party when in fact not.

“I am glad that you have accepted our running mate. It is not only yourselves but the general public in the province. It is a very good sign indeed, as I told you at the airport, the opposition especially the UPND are saying that I was chased out of the party, of course no one chased me out of PF. But the thing is that PF officials are not as vocal as the opposition. You don’t know how to attack; you know how to defend yourselves. For the past five years, PF has been on the receiving end, [we] have been attacked, the President has been attacked, the MPs have been attacked because the opposition has nothing to do, ourselves we have a lot of work to do. But this time around I must warn you that we can no longer take these attacks, accepting these attacks no!” she warned.

Vice-President Wina further said the adoption process for UPND candidates was awkward as they left some of the trustworthy party members which resulted in them joining the PF.

“Already you have seen that UPND selection of candidates was very awkward in that they left some of the very trustworthy party members for some people they don’t even know. As a result, some of these strong party members have defected to the PF. MPs like Moono Lubezhi from Namwala, she was a very strong cadre for the UPND. Mr [Ephraim] Belemu from Mbabala, he has defected to PF, they have seen that there is no light at the end of the tunnel. So, they have come to PF to seek refuge and we have welcomed them. Next [time], we come back for proper campaigns, we will come with some of them, so that they can inform their members that there is no life in UPND,” Vice-President Wina said.

“We have suffered huge storms because of electing UPND. Prof Lungwagwa is here, he will tell you that even seeing you associating with PF, the story will be different. The leader of UPND did not want to bring development to Western Province because the people maybe misguided to think that PF is working. Now, his province is slightly developed compared to us here. We can’t afford to be away from government, how will development come? We are complaining of so many unfinished roads, or not done [roads] all because there was no one to lobby. One voice of Inonge Wina was not enough. That is why we want more of you to be elected so that you represent your people in your constituencies.”

And Vice-President Wina said the people of Western Province were lucky to have President Edgar Lungu as a President because he believed in inclusivity.

“The message we should take to the people is that we have one Vice President, one person in Cabinet but now let us work hard so that we produce more MPs who may be appointed as Ministers, which means we can have more Ministers in Cabinet than just one boss. That way you will see what will happen to this province. We are lucky that President Lungu believes in inclusivity, he does not discriminate, otherwise he would have said ‘you people in Western Province, you remain behind because you don’t want me, you don’t want my Vice President, because you didn’t vote for us. You people in Dundumwezi, you gave me only 200 votes so I will leave you alone’, but no, he moved in and did the possible, now there is even an all-weather road and electricity in the villages,” she said.

“Even here, I believe after this election we will see more members of parliament. Once we have more members of parliament, I believe we will see some Ministers emerge from your group. But this will not happen on its own, we have to work very hard. So, you need to select very reliable foot soldiers who will visit homes to convince them why they should vote for PF.”