FORMER Labour Minister Fackson Shamenda says the PF are simply putting up faith because it is embarrassing for them to accept defeat.

And Shamenda says refusal to accept defeat is treason as it is going against the will of the people.

In an interview, Friday, Shamenda noted that if Zambians were satisfied with PF’s performance, they would not have turned up in numbers to vote.

He added that he was shocked that some of his intelligent PF colleagues who had been politicians for a long time could not see that they had lost.

“These people were told and I remember talking to some of these colleagues of mine to say ‘when you see a lot of queues of people going to register, it means that people want change’. They said when they saw those long queues of people going to register then they wanted to protect the government. If people were satisfied with what the government was doing, they would have slept and said everything was okay. Now it is the embarrassment of accepting defeat and these are kicks of the dying horse. PF is just putting up faith because for them it is embarrassing to accept defeat. The Zambians will not allow them to remain in office, it is done,” Shamenda said.

“It’s like a boxer who is going in the 10th round out of the 12th round even when he knows that he has lost but wants to get to the 12th round and thinking that he might survive. There is no way a person who has been put in office by the electorate can refuse defeat, on what basis? Deep inside they themselves know very well that once you lose you have to leave. They are not the first ones who have lost and I was surprised that some of my friends who are intelligent and have been politicians for a long time couldn’t see it.”

Shamenda stated that had the level playing field been fair during campaigns, the PF would have been history by now.

He added that refusal to accept defeat was treason because it was going against the will of the people.

“We saw during the registration even though they did disfranchise some of them. You can imagine if there was a level playing field, if people were freely going to campaign like it was in 2011 and 1991, PF was going to be history by now. Where there is a will of people, no person can fight that will. They are just dreaming and we can’t stop people from dreaming and this is why we had 16 presidential candidates contesting. If you are clobbered, you are clobbered, what more do you want and what are they trying to say if they can’t accept defeat,” he said.

“People are suffering, including those in security wings even more than their fellow civilians. Look at how they have voted themselves. Are they going to allow them to stay in office? Refusing to accept defeat is treason at its highest form because they are trying to go against the will of the people. There is no worse treason I can think of than making such pronouncements. They need to be warned in strong terms and not to even think about it.”

And Shamenda appealed to the next government to put Zambians first and live up to the expectation of their promises.

“Some of us saw it coming and we are very pleased but would like to appeal to the new leadership that is coming in. We don’t want again a situation or a group of individuals who will hold the country to ransom and let us put the interest of the Zambians first. Those who are elected must be servants of the people rather than be masters of the people. We have to make sure that those we are putting in power now are accountable to us and do the right thing,” said Shamenda.

“They need to be warned that some previous governments lasted for 27 years while the MMD lasted for 20 years, PF 10 years. So those who are coming in need to live up to the expectation of their promises and do the right thing as failure to respect the lives of Zambians and good governance, they might last only for one term.”