By SIMON MUNTEMBA
THE Patriot Front (PF) should bring in politically strong youths who have intellectual ability to articulate policy imperatives that appeal to the young population if it is to return power, Geoffrey Lungwangwa has said. Professor Lungwangwa, who is losing PF Nalikwanda parliamentary candidate, said the former ruling party should rebrand itself by incorpo[1]rating the young people in leadership positions or face extinction.
“In an age of youth power, it requires careful attraction of politically strong youth who have intellectual ability to articulate policy imperatives that appeal to the young population,” Prof Lungwangwa said. He said in an interview that the loss of members after losing power was an uncontrollable development but its future depended on how it rebranded itself.
Prof. Lungwangwa said the answer for PF to survive lies more in the strategies that are adopted to make it credible and a viable and strong competitor on the political platform. He said the defections would be the order of the day because it was common in African politics for the former ruling political party members to join the new ruling party which had become the centre of attraction and the dispenser of opportunities.
“The loss of members of the party is a very uncontrollable development. In our situation people join political parties for various intrinsic and extrinsic reasons,” Prof Lungwangwa said. He however said that in old and more mature democracies political party membership was in most cases based on well-founded ideological convictions.
