PF secretary general Davies Mwila says as the party chooses a new leader, that person has to have credibility in order for the party to survive. .

In an interview, Mwila said the PF central committee would meet this Saturday in order to chart the way forward.

“We are making a decision on Saturday, that’s when we are going to have a central committee. So the central committee will guide, and will give us the way forward. So all the issues pertaining to the conference, organisation of the structures, will be done on Saturday. So we will be able to tell the nation about it,” he said.

“Yes of course (the candidate must be easy to sell), the one who will be elected must be someone who has credibility. If you talk tomorrow, you will have to give respect. We don’t want people that will not win us an election, no! We have to survive as a party. So we are very much geared and we have to choose the right person. That’s what we plan to do, to sell that candidate because the current leadership is not taking us anywhere.”

He said people’s willingness to lead the party was an indication that it was still intact.

“People want PF and that’s why our party, our structures are intact. That’s why you have seen no one has defected to the UPND . Only Mawere (Moses) and Peter Daka. We are intact, we are intact. All that the people are waiting for is for us to give them direction, the leader who will take us to 2026,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mwila mocked UPND for losing a by-election just two months after winning the general elections.

“You ask yourself, did they (UPND) win genuinely? Did they win genuinely? That’s the question. If they had won genuinely, there was no way a political party could lose an election after winning elections in two months and after two, you lose an election. People are supposed to come to you when you are in government, but if people are able to reject you within two months, then they know they are in fear,” Mwila said.

He said UPND campaign promises would cost them in the general election.

“The problem that they have is that because of the promises they made to the Zambian people, the Zambian people want to see results. When is he going to sell the Presidential jet? He said ‘immediately I’m elected, I’m going to sell the Presidential jet’, we are waiting. Why is he not selling? He wants it to get rotten? He said all the ministers will be driving Corollas, they are driving VXs. He told us immediately ‘I’m sworn in, the dollar would be K10’. We left it at K16, it’s now running to K18. So it’s through their promises that will make them lose an election in 2026,” he said.

“Us we will tell the Zambian people if that they (UPND) have failed to fulfill what they promised. Have they fulfilled the meal allowance they promised to the students in the colleges and universities? The answer is no. We will give them time but they said the mealie meal will come to K5, so we are waiting. They said ‘the fuel price during the PF regime there were too many middle men. Us when we come into power, we will remove that and the price of fuel will come down’.”

Mwila said it would be easy for the PF to campaign in 2026 because they would use UPND’s failures.

“So what will make them lose is the promises, not us. That’s what we are going to focus on. Because we left a legacy to put up infrastructure which the Zambian people are able to see. Let them fulfill the promises, failure to do that, they lose in 2026. Youths who voted for them are waiting for jobs, employment. No (if the PF were liars), we are human beings but these people it’s just too much. They promised things that they cannot do,” said Mwila.