{"id":58143,"date":"2024-02-17T21:44:51","date_gmt":"2024-02-17T21:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/?p=58143"},"modified":"2024-02-17T07:01:21","modified_gmt":"2024-02-17T07:01:21","slug":"father-frank-bwalya-defects-to-upnd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/father-frank-bwalya-defects-to-upnd","title":{"rendered":"Father Frank Bwalya Defects to UPND"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Zambia. <\/strong><\/span>In a notable shift within the political landscape, former Socialist Party Spokesperson Frank Bwalya announced his defection to the United Party for National Development (UPND), citing President Hakainde Hichilema\u2019s visionary leadership as his primary motivation.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Bwalya, who previously served as Ambassador to Australia under the Patriotic Front (PF) administration, expressed his commitment to advancing President Hichilema\u2019s developmental agenda and working diligently to spread awareness of the party\u2019s vision.<\/p>\n<p>Joining Mr. Bwalya at the same event was Patriotic Front member Patrick Samwimbila, who also defected to the UPND, emphasizing his readiness to serve both the party and the people of Zambia to foster development.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, Democratic Christian Party Deputy Secretary General Cosmas Chileshe made the decision to join the UPND, affirming his support for President Hichilema\u2019s leadership and his vision to elevate Zambia to a middle-income nation through focused governance.<\/p>\n<p>Jairos Zulu of the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) also aligned himself with the UPND, pledging to collaborate closely with party structures to advance its goals.<\/p>\n<p>Welcoming the defectors in the presence of President Hakainde Hichilema, UPND Lusaka Province Chairperson Obvious Mwaliteta urged the new members to contribute to maintaining peace and unity within both the party and the country as a whole.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\">Zambia<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Zambia. In a notable shift within the political landscape, former Socialist Party Spokesperson Frank Bwalya announced his defection to the United Party for National Development (UPND), citing President Hakainde Hichilema\u2019s visionary leadership as his primary motivation. Mr. Bwalya, who previously served as Ambassador to Australia under the Patriotic Front (PF) administration, expressed his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":58142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,25,10,248],"tags":[234,235,233],"class_list":["post-58143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-featured","category-parties","category-to-homepage","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-zambia","tag-zambia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Father Frank Bwalya Defects to UPND - Zambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a notable shift within the political landscape, former Socialist Party Spokesperson Frank Bwalya announced his defect ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/father-frank-bwalya-defects-to-upnd\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Father Frank Bwalya Defects to UPND\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a notable shift within the political landscape, former Socialist Party Spokesperson Frank Bwalya announced his defect ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/father-frank-bwalya-defects-to-upnd\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Zambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-17T21:44:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2024\/02\/sm_1708140493.523207.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/father-frank-bwalya-defects-to-upnd#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/father-frank-bwalya-defects-to-upnd\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Father Frank Bwalya Defects to UPND\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-17T21:44:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/father-frank-bwalya-defects-to-upnd\"},\"wordCount\":225,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/father-frank-bwalya-defects-to-upnd#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2024\/02\/sm_1708140493.523207.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Zambia\",\"Zambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Featured\",\"parties\",\"to-homepage\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/father-frank-bwalya-defects-to-upnd#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/father-frank-bwalya-defects-to-upnd\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/father-frank-bwalya-defects-to-upnd\",\"name\":\"Father Frank Bwalya Defects to UPND - 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