By EDWIN LIFWEKELO
WHY didn’t they defect when the United Party for National Development (UPND) was in the opposition? This is the million dollar question boggling the minds of watchers of Zambia’s politics as the fledgling New Dawn government struggles to take full control of state machinery and governance systems while welcoming defectors from the opposition.
The Patriotic Front (PF) party does not have any problem with its members defecting to other parties because it is their democratic right under the current republican Constitution. However, it is important for the UPND to be careful with the people it is receiving as defectors. It is difficult to know the true motive of the defectors.
The party is aware of a few members and officials who may defect.
These defections, which are being choreographed at the UPND secretariate in Lusaka, could be a sign that the UPND is under pressure emanating from the growing public anger at its failure to adhere to the unrealistic promises it made to the people of Zambia during the campaigns for the August 12, 2021 tripartite elections.
Or is the UPND so scared of the PF in opposition that it has resorted to desperate activities aimed at weakening it and, if possible, sending it into oblivion? That will not happen.
In the aftermath of the elections that ushered the UPND in government many Zambians expected mass defections of members of the PF to the new ruling party. However, Zambians are amused that more than three months on there has not been the much anticipated exodus, and this seems to scare the ruling party.
Of course, there have been a few mostly low-profile defections. Since the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) declared Hakainde Hichilema as the winner of the presidential vote some members of the PF have announced that they had resigned from the party to join the new ruling party. And there has been jubilation in the UPND camp.
Surprisingly, some of these celebrated ‘defectors’ are now openly participating in the debates on the affairs and future of the opposition party. Doesn’t that give the UPND a hint?
There are a number of factors that are influencing the defections. One of them is the fear of retribution from over-excited ruling party cadres and politically motivated harassment by state agents. Some are defecting because they have smelt the coffee in the kitchen. “It’s time to eat with the new government,” they are saying. Yet some are crossing because they don’t want to be associated with the vanquished.
Most of the defectors are ‘mosquito weights’ whose departure has no effect on the structural and operational integrity of the vastly experienced PF. It is actually risky for the UPND to receive those people.
What yard stick will it use to detect those with ill-motives and the genuine ones? Some of those people have been habitual, ‘professional’ defectors. That is how they have been surviving.
What guarantee is there that they will not defect back to the PF when they see that the UPND Titanic is sinking? Some of those defectors could be spies and mercenaries who may have been assigned to infiltrate the ruling party and weaken it before the 2026 general elections.
The PF has told its members that they are free to defect to the UPND and become its trusted moles providing vital intelligence on the ruling party. In 2026, as the nation prepares for the next general elections, they are free to come back.
Then there is the issue of trust. If those people can jump ship simply because the party they supported has lost what makes the UPND believe that they will stay to mourn with it when it loses in 2026?
In fact, for the PF most of the defectors are good riddance. Let them take their dishonesty, disloyalty and greed to the party that celebrates those vices as virtues. The fact that the nation has not seen the mass defections witnessed in the past general elections since Zambia reverted to multiparty politics in 1991 should be enough warning to the UPND that the PF is too strong to be shaken by these defections.
Needless to say defections after a major election are not new in Zambia. They started even before the first vote was cast in 1991. The nation saw people ditch UNIP to join the MMD, an infant mass movement. When the MMD lost power in 2011 the ‘ritual’ continued.
In 2001 a total of 22 members of Parliament (MPs) were expelled from the MMD for their open opposition to then President Frederick Chiluba’s bid for a third term. They later joined the PF which was formed by former MMD national secretary and minister Michael Sata and other aggrieved colleagues.
The MMD suffered defections throughout the 1990s, according to an assessment conducted by the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) and the Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP), funded by the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (nIMD) in July 2003.
The report of the findings titled ‘The State of Political Parties in Zambia – 2003’ says as a result of discord within the party over governance issues, between 1993 and 1996 the party experienced several defections and resignations leading to the formation of rival political parties.
“The Patriotic Front (PF) formed in late September (2001) by a senior party official and close ally of Chiluba was a reaction to the manner in which MMD’s National Executive Committee chose the presidential candidate.
“The twenty-two MMD MPs who had opposed the third term had been expelled from the party, but had won a High Court injunction to retain their seats until the matter had been determined.”
So as the defectors cross to the UPND, and as the ruling party welcomes them let both reflect on these issues seriously.
The author is deputy media director of the Patriotic Front (PF) party.
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