It is a PF, UPND race

By Prince Bill M. Kaping’a

The race to plot 1 is clearly a two-horse race between PF and UPND; the other political parties participating in the polls don’t stand any chance at all, they are merely filling up space in our so called democracy.

This was also seemingly confirmed by The Post newspaper editor in chief Fred M’membe when he wrote the following in his editorial yesterday, “And the opposition, especially the UPND, should not start celebrating that they have won the coming election. Edgar and group will stop at nothing to win this election. It’s do or die for them.”

UPND can only dismiss this piece of advice at its own peril. Take a look at some of the people that have rallied behind the candidature of Edgar Lungu, do some of them really have the interest of the nation at heart? Whereas some of them have well documented history of violence and/or corruption, others were fired from government by late President Michael Sata for a myriad of transgressions not so long ago. Would such individuals therefore let power easily slip-off their hands?

As things stand, HH cannot win this election all by himself; perhaps he is fully aware of this stubborn reality hence teaming-up with some MMD members of parliament, ADD president Charles Milipu and former first lady Mrs. Maureen Mwanawasa, among others. This is how it should be and HH must be commended.

However, it would be unwise to leave anything to chance for now; there’s still more work to be done. Now that former President Rupiah Banda has been technically knocked out of the race, HH must take a step further and persuade the former not only to endorse but campaign for him as well. Mr. Banda still commands a lot of support in Eastern province. He can play a key role in delivering a significant number of votes from the region. This is the icing sugar HH might need to decorate the cake that he already has – Southern, Western, N/western, Central and both Lusaka and Copperbelt rural.

The other person that would be worth considering is the Matero Member of Parliament Miles Sampa who is somehow still unhappy with the happenings in PF. The Matero legislator wasn’t anywhere near the Supreme Court when Edgar Lungu went to fill in his nomination papers on Saturday. While he’s still pondering to form his own political party to participate in the 2016 elections, Miles can be convinced to throw his weight behind HH for now. Sampa may help snatch the votes from some disgruntled PF members – and there are still many of them out there.