{"id":82649,"date":"2026-04-27T20:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T20:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria"},"modified":"2026-04-27T20:31:04","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T20:31:04","slug":"upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria","title":{"rendered":"Upnd Establishes Merit-Based Adoption Criteria"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Zambia. <\/strong><\/span>The governing United Party for National Development (UPND) has outlined its approach to candidate adoption ahead of this year\u2019s general election, placing emphasis on merit, grassroots endorsement, and electability.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on ZNBC\u2019s Sunday Interview, UPND Elections Chairman Likando Mufalali said the party does not recognise a distinction between so-called new members and long-standing insiders when it comes to adoption.<\/p>\n<p>He indicated that individuals perceived as recent entrants have, in many cases, maintained informal alignment with the party over time. Some, he said, were advised to remain in their original parties to avoid triggering by-elections while still working in coordination with UPND structures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of them approached us a long time ago and UPND being a democratic party, welcomed them but allowed them to continue representing their parties to avoid by-elections.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo people should stop saying new members maybe considered for adoptions, because these people have always been, and working with us. We have been working as a team,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>This framing introduces a deliberate repositioning of defections. It shifts the narrative from recent political movement to long-term alignment. It also provides internal justification for allowing such individuals to compete in adoption processes without being treated as outsiders.<\/p>\n<p>Mufalali said adoption will be driven from the grassroots, with party structures tasked to identify candidates based on popularity and local relevance.<\/p>\n<p>He stressed that seniority within the party will not guarantee adoption, stating that performance and public support will be the determining factors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are trying to avoid making mistakes of adopting people that have failed to perform in their respective areas and are not popular to the people. Politics is about numbers and if a new member is popular on the ground who are we not to adopt them?\u201d Mufalali said.<\/p>\n<p>The position formalises internal competition. It signals that incumbents and long-serving members may face credible challenges where performance is questioned.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, Mufalali acknowledged a structural difficulty within the process. He noted that it is not always possible to verify whether candidates recommended by the majority genuinely reflect the will of the grassroots until after adoption decisions are made.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPolitics can be difficult to tell on how one manages to go through, but we will go with what the people on the ground have decided on which member they want. We are not going to impose leaders,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>This introduces an element of uncertainty within an otherwise rules-based approach. The system depends on internal structures that may themselves be contested.<\/p>\n<p>Mufalali also addressed the likely fallout from competitive adoptions. He said the party has mechanisms to manage those who are not selected, with an emphasis on maintaining unity and avoiding internal conflict.<\/p>\n<p>He indicated that unsuccessful aspirants may be reassigned to other roles within the party structure.<\/p>\n<p>The direction is clear. Adoption will be contested. Loyalty alone will not be sufficient. The process will rely on structures, but its credibility will depend on how those structures hold under pressure.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Zambia<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Zambia. The governing United Party for National Development (UPND) has outlined its approach to candidate adoption ahead of this year\u2019s general election, placing emphasis on merit, grassroots endorsement, and electability. Speaking on ZNBC\u2019s Sunday Interview, UPND Elections Chairman Likando Mufalali said the party does not recognise a distinction between so-called new members and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":82648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,10],"tags":[233],"class_list":["post-82649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-parties","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>Upnd Establishes Merit-Based Adoption Criteria - Zambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The governing United Party for National Development (UPND) has outlined its approach to candidate adoption ahead of this ...\" \/>\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\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Upnd Establishes Merit-Based Adoption Criteria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The governing United Party for National Development (UPND) has outlined its approach to candidate adoption ahead of this ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria\" \/>\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=\"2026-04-27T20:22:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-27T20:31:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2026\/04\/sm_1777321844.758517.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"508\" \/>\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=\"3 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\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Upnd Establishes Merit-Based Adoption Criteria\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-27T20:22:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-27T20:31:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria\"},\"wordCount\":513,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2026\/04\/sm_1777321844.758517.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Zambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"parties\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria\",\"name\":\"Upnd Establishes Merit-Based Adoption Criteria - Zambia\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2026\/04\/sm_1777321844.758517.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-27T20:22:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-27T20:31:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"The governing United Party for National Development (UPND) has outlined its approach to candidate adoption ahead of this ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2026\/04\/sm_1777321844.758517.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2026\/04\/sm_1777321844.758517.jpg\",\"width\":720,\"height\":508,\"caption\":\"Upnd Establishes Merit-Based Adoption Criteria\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Upnd Establishes Merit-Based Adoption Criteria\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/\",\"name\":\"Zambia\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Upnd Establishes Merit-Based Adoption Criteria - Zambia","description":"The governing United Party for National Development (UPND) has outlined its approach to candidate adoption ahead of this ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Upnd Establishes Merit-Based Adoption Criteria","og_description":"The governing United Party for National Development (UPND) has outlined its approach to candidate adoption ahead of this ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria","og_site_name":"Zambia","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2026-04-27T20:22:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-04-27T20:31:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":720,"height":508,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2026\/04\/sm_1777321844.758517.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Upnd Establishes Merit-Based Adoption Criteria","datePublished":"2026-04-27T20:22:11+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-27T20:31:04+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria"},"wordCount":513,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2026\/04\/sm_1777321844.758517.jpg","keywords":["Zambia"],"articleSection":["all news","parties"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria","name":"Upnd Establishes Merit-Based Adoption Criteria - Zambia","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2026\/04\/sm_1777321844.758517.jpg","datePublished":"2026-04-27T20:22:11+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-27T20:31:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"The governing United Party for National Development (UPND) has outlined its approach to candidate adoption ahead of this ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2026\/04\/sm_1777321844.758517.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2026\/04\/sm_1777321844.758517.jpg","width":720,"height":508,"caption":"Upnd Establishes Merit-Based Adoption Criteria"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/upnd-establishes-merit-based-adoption-criteria#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Upnd Establishes Merit-Based Adoption Criteria"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/","name":"Zambia","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82649"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82652,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82649\/revisions\/82652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}