By SILUMESI MALUMO
THE opposition leaders are dancing to the tune of President Edgar Lungu’s popularity, Patriotic Front (PF) national vice-chairperson for mobilization Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba has said. Mr Mwamba said that all the opposition leaders were having nightmares because President Lungu was giving them pressure.
He said in an interview yesterday that none of the opposition leaders was comfortable to face Mr Lungu in at the August 12 election this year. He said the opposition leaders were using all desperate means to discredit President Lungu to try and dent his image.
Mr Mwamba said that President Lungu had become more popular because of the development he had delivered OPPOSITION JITTERY TO FACE LUNGU across the country. “For me, I cannot even panic about whether the opposition talk about President Lungu because I know very well that they are nothing but scared of him. “Whenever they see his shadow they always shiver. President Lungu canot be challenged by any opposition leaders we have in the country,” he said.
Mr Mwamba said the current crop of opposition leaders cannot be compared to the PF when it was in the opposition. By OLIVER SAMBOKO FORMER Minister of Health Dr Chitalu Chilufya has applied to recontest the Mansa Central constituency seat on the Patriotic Front ticket. And both the ruling party and the United Party for National Development (UPND) have received a flurry of applications from candidates eyeing seats in Lusaka and other parts of the country.
In Lusaka, Kabwata has emerged as the hot seat where some youths are battling to be adopted by the PF against the incumbent, Mr Given Lubinda, who is also Justice Minister and has been its MP for 20 years. In Kanyama, the incumbent, Ms Elizabeth Phiri is facing a serious challenge from three men, Musonda Sichone, Pastor Simukonda and Chrisantius Changwereza, who both applied in 2016 and were unsuccessful but are optimistic of their chances this time around. And Mr Changwereza lodged in his application at the Kanyama constituency offices before proceeding to the Secretariat and provincial offices.
The district offices were closed as officials had reportedly gone to a funeral send off for a Matero councillor, Moses Bwalya who was being put to rest yesterday. Mr Changwereza presented a social contract which contains a litany of pledges he wants to fulfil in uplifting the lives of residents in the constituency with one focus being on poor drainages which has seen even the PF constituency offices being submerged.
“We cannot continue to live in water and wading in water every rain season when we have representation in Parliament, because that suggests something is wrong, and this we must put right,” he said. “We need pragmatic and effective leadership who live within Kanyama and have always done, to help change the fortunes of this constituency,” he said. And Clement Tembo lodged in his application papers on Thursday in a low key even in line with the Covid-19 preventive measures.
Mr Tembo said in an interview that he decided to do a low key filing of his papers as opposed to getting people from different wards even outside Kabwata when the event did not call for such. And Mr Tembo said he used a private vehicle and went to lodge his application to contest the Kabwata seat on the PF ticket.
He later went to Mahopo to hand over a refurbished school among other donations to the local community. Meanwhile, ZANIS reports that Dr Chilufya has applied for re-adoption as Mansa Central MP for the August 12, 2021 general elections. Dr Chilufya told his supporters who escorted him that he is applying for re – adoption because he wants to continue with the development that President Edgar Lungu has begun in the constituency.
