LusakaVoice

Ackson Phiri January 30, 2015 at 6:52 am

Cries by UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema that victory in last week’s presidential election was stolen from him are a political gimmick meant to portray himself as a victim of electoral fraud. In fact, Mr. Hichilema is on record having said that he was not going to concede defeat long before Zambians went to the polls.
Mr Hichilema has decided to cry foul in the futile hope that he can attract a sympathy vote in the tripartite elections next year. Therefore, we are happy to note that the Zambian public has decided to ignore Mr Hichilema’s cry that his votes were stolen. The truth of the matter is that Mr Hichilema was beaten clean in an election that has been described by Zambian and credible international observers as free and fair and devoid of rampant electoral violence.
As such we urge Mr Hichilema to stop his usual bad habit of pursing innocent people at the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) who he has accused of stealing his votes by manufacturing figures. Zambians are sick and tired of his unbecoming behaviour of maliciously accusing innocent people of crimes they have not committed.
Only a few days ago he accused Defence Chiefs of treason for allegedly blackmailing Dr Guy Scott as acting republican president to reconcile with PF leader President Edgar Chagwa Lungu. His party also accused late Mr. Sata’s son Mr. Mulenga Sata of having dark corner meetings with ECZ public relations manager Mr. Chris Akufuna as part of alleged plans to rig the presidential election.
Against this background, we commend Zambian and international stakeholders for ignoring Mr Hichilema’s crocodile tears.
Finally, we wish to help Mr. Hichilema with insights for him to become realistic. He seemed to have done well in the just ended election because people in his traditional stronghold conspicuously turned up in large numbers to vote whereas apathy characterized voter turnout in PF strongholds. Moreover, PF went into the election bruised from internal wrangles that characterized the election of their presidential candidate. These factors, among many others, will not be at play in 2016. People in PF strongholds will vote in en masse as is the case of general elections. Besides, PF will go into the 2016 tripartite elections as a united front under the able leadership of Mr. Edgar Chagwa Lungu who has already won the hearts of Zambians in the few days that he has been president. Against this background, we are sure that UPND will again tumble and therefore we urge Mr. Hichilema to keep his hopes modest and avoid heart attack.