Africa-Press – Zambia. ZAMBIA Must Prosper President Kelvin Fube Bwalya says there is the same wind of change in the country as that of 1991, 2011, and 2021.
And Bwalya, a member of the Tonse Alliance, says the alliance does not believe that the current ECZ can deliver a credible election.
Meanwhile, Bwalya has advised other Tonse Alliance members to come to the negotiating table with honesty if they are to trust each other.
He said this when he appeared on Crown TV’s ‘Hard Ball’ programme.
When asked if he felt a wind of change similar to that of 2021 and 2011, Bwalya responded in the affirmative, adding that the atmosphere and pressure were the same as those of 1990 and 1991.
“Yes, I do. Maybe I can take you back to the wind of change of 1990 and 1991 with MMD. It’s the same thing, same feeling, same atmosphere, same pressure, same gravity, and the same speed. We have a government today which I think has brought a lot of misrule. It has also brought a lot of economic hardships on the Zambians but, more importantly, it has swayed away from its original promises, its original ideas, and it has put a lot of Zambians under serious economic hardships,” he said.
“So, the Zambians are feeling the pain, the cost of living, food prices, and that is beginning to be a topic of discussion everywhere you go: on minibuses, at barbershops, in the markets, at chilanga mulilos, kitchen parties, you name it. Zambians are always talking about, ‘What can we do?’ When you begin to hear that, just know that something is cooking somewhere, and that’s where we are going.”
Asked if the opposition was strong enough to unseat the UPND next year, Bwalya again responded in the affirmative, adding that it was possible if they united.
“Yes, I think if we put our heads together and if we are able to unite with one purpose and envisage the Zambia that we are trying to liberate, yes, we can unseat the UPND, and we are going to do just that. The problem we have now with the UPND is that it is playing with a lot of laws, it is playing with a lot of well-established institutions, and indeed it is trying to undermine democracy using institutions which it is coming up with. It is trying to change or amend the Constitution in certain regards. All these are signs of a government in panic, a government in desperation, and a government that has lost track. So because of that, as the opposition, we are very, very happy to see the UPND panicking,” he said.
When further asked if the Tonse Alliance believed that ECZ can deliver a credible election, he responded in the negative, accusing the commission of attempting to rig.
“Unfortunately, at the rate we are going, we don’t [believe so], I’m sorry to say, because the leadership is failing. I have just told you, Mwangala Zaloumis stood in front of your cameras as well in Mumbwa flagging off this process. She has failed to deliver on the ground. If you are not ready, why did you announce it? That’s failure. Now, if we see that, some of us with experience, and we are telling you there is a problem here because this is leading to that, and that will lead to this end product, we know what’s going on,” Bwalya said.
“But we also have information that in some regions, voter registration never really stopped; it was continuous. Why is that? Again, we are saying that is rigging. We cannot have this, and we must be serious, we must be fair to all Zambians. You cannot skew voter registration to favour certain places, it can’t happen. And we will not allow it. With more evidence coming, we might be forced to litigate. So I’m making a passionate plea to our Electoral Commission Chairlady, Mwangala Zaloumis: do the right thing, because if you don’t, tomorrow the law may visit you.”
Meanwhile, Bwalya advised other Tonse Alliance members to come to the negotiating table with honesty if they are to trust each other.
He added that the alliance will use the “PLM formula” as a strategy, which will be concluded before the end of the year.
“Maybe you should take down these letters, PLM, that’s the formula. The first thing that we are going to do within Tonse in our discussions is that we are going to find a special purpose vehicle within Tonse. We need a political party which is registered at the Registrar of Societies, which is compliant at the Registrar of Societies, and which has no problems at the Registrar of Societies, to be the special purpose vehicle under which all Tonse members are going to fall. That’s the ‘P’ purpose vehicle. ‘L’ we look for leadership within Tonse; this is not a preserve of one political party, it has to be by consensus. ‘M’ the message. We’ve got a timeline; before the end of the year everything will be done. I can’t be telling you everything in terms of strategy, we can’t. UPND is all over the show; you know how they operate,” said Bwalya.
“I have said this before and I’ll say it here: I’m assuring the Zambians, we do have differences of opinion, we have some hot heads, we have some strong heads, but it is not insurmountable. This is not something we haven’t done before. Some of us are experienced enough, we know. When you bring forces together, there is friction, it is normal, and we shall resolve these things. To my alliance members and other people within Tonse, and others who need to come and join us, we need to come to this talking table with honesty so that we begin to trust each other and have one common purpose, to get the UPND out of power because of the misrule and the economic hardships that they have presented to the Zambians.”
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