By NATION REPORTER
UPND President Hakainde Hichilema is preparing himself to justify to his foreign financiers the impending loss of the August 12 elections. The opposition leaders has resorted to accusing the Patriotic Front (PF) of planning to rig the polls, says PF Media Director Antonio Mwanza.
Mr Hichilema alleged that his party has unearthed a ploy in which the PF is planning to connive with officials from the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) to rig the elections just as they did in 2016 when they added about 13, 000 votes to their official vote. But Mr Mwanza said in an interview that the UPND leader’s allegations were nothing but an excuse to justify to foreign financiers his impending loss next month.
He said Mr Hichilema was trying to find excuses to give to UPND members and his international financiers. “It is a ploy because he can’t beat President Edgar Lungu at this election and the foreigners he has gotten money from ‘tabakamuleke, balefwaya impiya shabo’ (foreigners want their money),” he said.
Mr Mwanza said Mr Hichilema had always claimed that the elections were being rigged but when he goes to court, he fails to produce evidence. “In 2006 he claimed that the late President Mwanawasa rigged the election, in 2008 he claimed Mr Rupiah Banda had rigged, in 2015 and 2016 he claimed that President Lungu rigged the elections but has failed to prove the rigging, so Mr Hichilema is like a little child who cries wolf every day when there is no wolf,” he said.
