THE Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) has charged that it will not form an alliance with any opposition political party only for the sake of winning the August general elections and share luxurious Government positions at the expense of the electorates.
FDD spokesperson Antonio Mwanza said it was not the desire of his party to enter into alliances with opposition political parties based on what he termed ‘‘tuwine no kwakana ifipuna’’ (we win and share government positions) because Zambians were more important than Government jobs.
Reacting to the prediction by UPND vice-president for administration Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba that President Edgar Lungu was headed for victory if opposition political parties failed to forge strong alliances.Mr Mwanza said removing the Head of State should not be the ultimate goal despite having failed to meet the expectations of Zambians.
Mr Mwamba on Thursday advised opposition political parties to form an alliance with his party, the UPND, or face the reality of having President Lungu bouncing back into State House.
But Mr Mwanza said in an interview that if the UPND was worried about losing the August general elections without an alliance, the opposition political party was free to join hands with the FDD which was the party of choice because of its good economic and social policies.
Mr Mwanza wondered why the UPND was focused on removing President Lungu from State House and only to replace him with the same people who were defecting from the MMD and joining the opposition party.
“The FDD is not going to form alliances for the sake of wining the August general elections and then share positions in government at the expense of the electorates and the general citizenry. What is going to happen to a teacher whose conditions of service are bad? What is going to happen to a nurse who is demotivated because of poor policies in the health sector…and what about an ordinary Zambian on the streets scrounging for survival? We are not going to get into alliances on the basis of tuwine, twakane ifipuna,” Mr Mwanza said.
He said the FDD was looking at policies and that if there were opposition political parties that shared its vision and ideology, they were free to support the candidature of Edith Nawakwi whose desire, he said, was to work for the majority poor Zambians.
Mr Mwanza wondered why Mr Mwamba and the UPND were scared that President Lungu would win the coming general elections when the majority of Zambians were not happy with the manner in which the country was being governed.
Mr Mwanza said it would be difficult for President Lungu and the PF to win the elections because of the country-wide shortage of mealie meal with its high prices, lack of drugs in hospitals and the closure of high learning institutions such as the University of Zambia and the Copperbelt University.
Mr Mwanza claimed Zambia’s economy had suffered what he termed a catastrophic meltdown and it would be difficult for the ruling party to convince the electorate to give them another mandate to preside over the affairs of the country.
Mr Mwanza said the political situation on the Copperbelt had allegedly become hostile for the PF because many miners had lost their jobs as a result of the restructuring in the mines following the global economic meltdown.
AM IMPREST THAT EVERY ONE INCLUDING UPND AND FDD KNOW THAT EDGAR IS BOUNCING TO POWER IN AUGUST
This is a big paradox , a small FDD sounds to be more comfortable than a big UPND.
What I`m hearing from FDD ,4R and reading from the Post newspaper is, ‘if it means changing govt
then it should not be UPND but one of the minor parties’. In short PF is better than UPND.
However, the biggest paradox is, HH speaks good of the Post newspaper,but the Post is doing the opposite.
It’s a known fact that Edith is actually working with Jameson so spares us this crap. What GBM is saying is that a disjointed opposition that’s hellbent on attacking each other is equally useless to us the citizens.
By the way will Edith let us in on what happened in the UDA that made her hate HH with so much passion?
FDD is a small and finished party.2011 is like this August 11 elections in that the masses chose to support PF in the dying minutes coz PF was close in austing out MMD and now that Party in that position is UPND.You can talk the whole day but the fact is UPND and PF are front runners!
I ONCE HAD HIGH REGARD FOR EDITH NAWAKWI BUT I SEE HER IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT NOW. OPPOSITION IS OPPOSITION? WHY IS SHE IN OPPOSITION IF SHE DOES NOT WANT TO OUST THE RULING PARTY? TO ME SHE IS WAITING FOR THE HIGHEST BIDDER TO SELL HER PARTY TO. WE ALL KNOW THAT EDITH IS WITH PF.