Africa-Press – Zambia. THE PATRIOTIC FRONT (PF) Central Committee has noted that the devastating loss suffered in the just ended August 2021 General election was divine intervention by God.
Newly appointed PF National Chairperson for Information and Publicity Hon Given Lubinda has said it was for that reason that the party’s Central Committee are in support of President Edgar Lungu’s decision in accepting the outcome of the elections.
MCC Lubinda said this during a press briefing at the PF Secretariat today following yesterday’s first extraordinary meeting after the polls. He however noted that the elections were marred with rampart electoral malpractice, reckless violence and murders like the brutal and barbaric murder of PF North-Western Province Chairperson MCC Jackson Kungo.
MCC Lubinda said the murders were premeditated and most PF officials were accused of carrying premarked ballot papers and “our members were attacked thereby leaving our votes vulnerable and unprotected.”
“Notwithstanding these circumstances, the Central Committee are in support of President Lungu decision in accepting the outcome of the August polls. And for this reason the we hereby congratulate him for deciding not to petition the election results,” Hon Lubinda said.
He further stressed that the highest decision-making body of the party also agreed with the outgoing Head of State that the work ahead and the tranquility of Zambians was too important to be subjected to court petitions.
And Hon Lubinda has said the PF Central Committee has joined President Lungu in congratulating President-Elect Hakainde Hichilema of the United Party for National Development (UPND) for emerging victorious in the just ended polls.
“The PF shall respect his presidency and the authority of his office as Head of State,” Hon Lubinda said. “We in the PF shall not hinder him and his government from delivering on the promises made and fulfil their campaign promises to the Zambian people.”
Meanwhile, Hon Lubinda said the Central Committee reminded itself that the PF had lost three elections in the past before the 2011 victory but it emerged stronger from those defeats.
He said it was for that reason that the party is convinced beyond reasonable doubt that it was God’s will that the PF should lose the 2021 General election.
“Divine intervention as far as we are concerned is meant to teach us lessons. We have therefore resolved to conduct an introspection and postmortem to establish the causes of this defeat so as to strategise on how to move on the higher trajectory,” Hon Lubinda added.
He said the soon-to-be-done intropection and postmortem shall take the form of candid review of all policies, occurances, statements and all commissions or omissions made especially by those of in the Central Committee entrusted by the members with the mandate to provide leadership.
MCC Lubinda said the process shall involve all the party structures and organs adding that all the supporters and ordinary members alike would be encouraged to submit their views and no one shall be ignored and the lessons drawn from that would be necessary for the party to make amends.
“We acknowledge the fact that the members out there are grieving about this loss more than the leadership hence it is imperative that we get them involved in the process of making this introspection and conducting this postmortem.
“Our members across the country wants answers but we understand that they too have the answers because they are the wisdom of the party and we shall give them latitude for them to guide the party going forward,” Hon Lubinda said.
And Mr Lubinda has said that the party will come out as a strong opposition with its 59 Members of Parliament and numerous Councillors around the country as the Party is doing an introspection to establish what went wrong to loose the 2021 general election.
MCC Lubinda further stated that the Party is doing the introspection to come out on the right trajectory and that the party has a strong membership base that gives it the confidence of bouncing back after the loss.
“We are going to remodel, rebrand and emerge even stronger. This we are determined to do and have confidence it will be done,” he added. Hon Lubinda has further called on party members to work hard to ensure that the PF becomes the best choice for Zambians.
He has further urged party members and cooperating partners to feel free to offer advice to the party leadership on how the development of the party. “There will be changes after the review and the public will only be formed by the decisions made by the party leadership. We are confident that many issues will be dealt with,” he added.
