Put aside August 12 euphoria, UPND told
By JOHN KOMBE
THE UPND must shed the excitement of the August election victory and impress to keep the momentum alive, New Heritage Party president, Chishala Kateka has said.
Ms. Kateka made the observation in an interview yesterday.
She was commenting on the just ended elections in which the Patriotic Front (PF) surprisingly scooped three seats.
She said that people usually vote for the ruling party in such elections and as such, the results were a wake -up call to the UPND.
Ms. Kateka said that the August 12 polls were not really for the UPND because people had just resolved to do away with the PF.
“The UPND needs to impress because the August 12 elections were a gift to them. It is now up to the UPND to win the confidence of the people. It is surprising that they even lost in Masaiti council elections despite their popularity in the area,” she said.
Ms. Kateka stressed that the UPND needs to do more to keep the Zambians happy. She said that the many campaign promises would be used as a yard-stick for measuring their performance and as such the party must pull up their socks in that regard.
She said that the people did not really vote for the UPND in the August 12 elections, but voted to shed off the PF fatigue.
She therefore, urged the UPND to take advantage of this window of opportunity to win the hearts of the people who were still not convinced that the UPND would deliver on its promises.
Ms. Kateka however pointed out that it was too early to say the PF was strong or that the UPND was losing popularity.
She said that the real litmus-test would come if by-elections were held one or two years from now. She observed that people were still aligned to their political parties and it takes time for a former ruling party to be discarded by its loyal members.
She said that the PF wins in Eastern Province were not a surprise because they even got more votes in the province in the August polls.
Ms. Kateka however said the PF-win in Masaiti local government elections was commendable as this was a UPND stronghold.
She said that despite the PF winning three seats they should not celebrate the victories as it was too early to draw conclusions.
