PF vice president Given Lubinda says President Hakainde Hichilema has so far scored zero out of 10 since he assumed office.

And Lubinda says President Hichilema’s speech during the opening of the 13th National Assembly was not his, arguing that technocrats had written it for President Edgar Lungu in anticipation of his win.

Meanwhile, Lubinda says he was shocked to see UPND win last month’s general elections just as they themselves were shocked.

Speaking when he featured on Capital FM, Tuesday, Lubinda said President Hichilema had so far failed to score a single point in terms of delivery of campaign promises.

“At least on the score of 10, he must score at least seven. Now what we have seen is that on the score of seven so far the score is zero. Yes we will give him time but we are hoping that as he progresses he told us to tick. He told us to tick and our role is to tick but so far in the check boxes, when we look we find x’s not a single tick,” he said.

“If you say I shall gradually do this then people will believe you, and if you put it as a statement of fact then it is a fact it must be done there and then. So when I say President Bally must keep his promises, it is because I don’t want him to end up earning the name Bally Muntu Wabufi, BMW, I don’t want the President to have that name. I want him to escape that name and he will escape that name by keeping his promises.”

And Lubinda said President Hichilema’s speech during the opening of the 13th National Assembly was just given to him by technocrats.

“The speech that was given to him to deliver to parliament on the opening of the 13th National Assembly was obviously not his speech. That speech, like honorable, said was written by technocrats and I can assure you that those technocrats had written that speech long before the elections. They too were anticipating president Edgar Lungu to read that speech. So it was a speech written following a PF manifesto that’s why you see a lot of things in that speech which are borrowed directly from the PF manifesto,” he said.

“I hope when he comes up with a budget, he will come up with a budget that will reflect his party manifesto not the PF manifesto. The budget for 2022, the one thing that Zambians are looking for, number one there must be a huge increase to the Ministry of Education so that our children go to school without paying fees. Surely, God must not forgive us as Zambians for us to have elected a President on the basis that our children will attend free education and then afterwards we are short changed.”

Meanwhile, Lubinda said he was shocked that the UPND won last month’s general elections.

“I think surprise is an understatement. Much as the UPND got shocked to win, and the Zambian people were shocked to see the UPND win, I was also shocked to see them win,” he said.

He said he was encouraged to see the party intact, without defections of key members despite the election loss.

“I am very happy indeed that there are very few names that I have heard and it’s not them themselves, it’s just one person whom I have heard, a member of the central committee Dr Hamukale (Edify) who said he had decided to retire from politics. I have yet to hear of a person who openly says I have ditched the PF. I’m going to the UPND or another party, I’m very encouraged by that. But of course there might be people who are moving very quietly and we can’t stop them, they have the democratic right of association,” he said.

Lubinda said he would be vindicated for having introduced Bill 10 once the new government starts the process of constitutional reforms.

“Soon and very soon the Zambian people will come to realise two things: one, that as the ruling party, as the government, we did not advertise this business as aggressively as those who were opposing it. We did not use the press, print, electronic and social media. We didn’t use it as effectively as those who championed opposing it. How will this happen, within the next few months, as you have heard people want constitutional reforms. You have heard the President himself saying there is going to be constitutional reforms, then I will be vindicated. I will be vindicated because when they come up with these constitutional reforms, there are a number of things you have to watch for,” said Lubinda.

“Number one, what process will they use to come up with the constitutional amendment bill? They criticized us for not having consulted widely. We have a record of how we consulted, we took more than three years to consult. I want to see if they will take five years to consult because if they take less then obviously they are falling short of what we provided. We had the NDF where all political parties except one were consulted. Let us see if they will bring more political parties than we did, we had Churches, let us see if they will bring angels there and not the same Churches we brought because if they will be bringing the same Churches, they will be falling short of their own argument. Let us see what will be the content of the bill, shall they say different from what they said.”