Political endorsements should not be celebrated, they are worthless-Nawakwi

POLITICAL parties should not celebrate endorsements or waste time boasting about them because they often do not lead to victories for most candidates, Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) president Edith Nawakwi has said.

Ms Nawakwi observed that endorsements had little impact on voters because often times the electorates took time to think through the choices of their candidates. It was therefore, important for political parties to concentrate on campaigns and hard work to strengthen themselves before the August 11 general elections.

Ms Nawakwi, however, stated that endorsements rarely hurt candidates being endorsed and should not therefore, be turned down if such were coming from credible individuals or organisations. She, however, stated on her Facebook page that there was nothing wrong for political organisations or leaders to request to be endorsed for as long as such a gesture was one of the campaign strategies.

Ms Nawakwi advised that political parties should not solely rely on endorsements to power their campaigns but should rather make hard work their first tactic of winning an election.
She said she was in the presidential race and in the campaigns not to please a few selfish individuals but to work with the people from whom she said solutions for their challenges could be found.

Ms Nawakwi said the FDD was not in the political contest to please a selected group of people but to work for Zambians who were experiencing the pangs of hunger and poverty.

“Endorsements rarely lead to victories for most candidates, so do not waste time celebrating and boasting about them. Instead, get back on the campaign trail and concentrate on the hard work which really wins elections.

“Even when the individuals giving the endorsements are extremely popular, there always will be some voters who would not like the individual making such. Those voters are likely to vote against the endorsement rather than for it. Endorsement usually will have little impact on voters because they often would have thought a lot about the candidates,” Ms Nawakwi said.

Ms Nawakwi said some political leaders were in the habit of telling voters what they would do for them when voted for but that it was her belief that solutions to the country’s problems were with Zambians facing the challenges.

She claimed that the current leadership was composed of ‘‘know-it-all individuals’’ and was not keen to listen to the problems the people were governing.