Mundubile fighting with hand tied as government blocks campaign donations platform

By Sishuwa Sishuwa

After the overwhelming support that the people showed in support of Brian Mundubile’s request for donations towards his campaign, the government has now moved to block the platform through which the people were making donations.

Mundubile has so many domestic and foreign forces working against him in this election that it is extraordinary that he has made it a competitive contest.

He has had to run on a little known political party ticket because his main rival abused state institutions to prevent him from running on a more familiar brand name by instigating divisions in all parties that were perceived as capable of serving as possible vehicles or platforms for his presidential campaign.

He cannot leave Zambia to mobilise funds outside the country because the state has long grabbed his passport alongside his phones.

He can hardly mobilise funds within the country because the state has squeezed local businesses perceived as supporting him.

He has had to use the road for campaigning across 116 districts and 10 provinces in less than 60 days while his rival flies at will from one public rally to another because the state has denied the opposition leader permission to use the airspace for campaign activities.

He is relying on a shoestring budget for his campaign, which includes donations from struggling citizens, against a wealthy incumbent President whose well-oiled campaign has benefited from the use of state resources and the generous support of multinational corporations and a major European mission in Lusaka that is working closely with State House to conduct opinion polls aimed at identifying potential areas of improvement.

On 27 July, this mission, whose government and private actors are eyeing significant mineral deposits from the recently completed nationwide mineral survey that was carried out in cohort with its agents, released its latest poll report that recommended that Hichilema must return to specific rural constituencies where he had already concluded his campaign so that he could emphasise the issues that it identified as of particular importance to rural voters: free education, social cash transfer, and school feeding programs.

He is completely blacked out of coverage by the public public and has much of the private media arraigned against him, in addition to being crowded out of the latter by both financially rewarding ads from his main rival and ruling party officials.

He has had to contend with the regular arrest of his campaign officials and even parliamentary candidates as well as high-level defections of his party functionaries to the ruling party following extremely attractive financial inducements.

And much, much else. I cannot believe the lack of international interest in such a gross disregard of democratic rights.

The only thing that Mundubile has had on his side since the start of the campaign is the organic support of the people.