Maravi

It will be a close MMD, PF contest

It will be a close MMD, PF contest
By Patson Chilemba
Sun 24 Apr. 2011, 04:01 CAT

ZCTU says PF has made inroads into MMD's strongholds and the political contest in this year’s elections will be between them and the ruling party.

Zambia Congress of Trade Unions secretary general Roy Mwaba said the analysis from ZCTU’s research committee revealed that it would be a close contest between the PF and MMD. He said the PF had spread their tentacles.

“So it is logical just to conclude that the competition or the political battle in this year’s tripartite elections will be between the MMD and the PF. And what we are trying to say is that, it is going to be quite a close contest and I think for us as a Congress we have reached a situation whereby for the first time we are going to have a Parliament which is going to be very strong,” Mwaba said.

“The margin between the political party which is going to have the majority of the MPs and the one which will be a follow up won’t be very big, which means whichever government comes into power, it will be very difficult for them to pass bills.” Mwaba said the PF had gained popularity in some provinces where the party was previously not popular. He said places like Mporokoso which had been an MMD stronghold since 1991 was now under the control of the PF.

Mwaba said PF already had traditional strongholds such as the Copperbelt and Lusaka provinces.

“Now when we say the PF has made inroads, we are referring to some provinces where they were not popular but now this time they are popular. We are talking of the past experience like in Mporokoso where the MMD used to have a constituency. We have seen that the PF have grabbed that,” Mwaba said.

“We have seen that even in Kasama the PF fielded a candidate Kasama parliamentarian Geoffrey Bwalya Mwambwa who was not even from a political background, but he scooped the seat. From the last ward and parliamentary seats, we can say the PF has made inroads in some areas where the MMD used to have influence.”

Mwaba said the shooting down of the Constitution of Zambia Bill showed that the Zambian Parliament had matured in that they were now able to look at issues as they came.

He said ZCTU had finished scrutinising the manifestos of the main contenders in this year’s elections and would now scrutinise the candidates.

Mwaba said the ZCTU wanted to bring into government a leadership which had an agenda that was biased towards the workers and ensure the issue of poverty alleviation was closely attended to.

He said ZCTU wanted a leadership that was democratic, accountable on public resources and answerable to the people of Zambia.

“I am not afraid and ashamed to say that this time around when we find a political party that meets what I have just highlighted, we are going to tell our members ‘go and vote wisely for that political party that has got the heart for Zambian people’,” Mwaba said.

“We have already scrutinised manifestos and to us as a Congress what we have seen is like all the three major political parties are almost duplicates of what the other one has.”

Mwaba said both MMD and PF had adequately catered for the issue of social protection and social security which were previously not there in the manifestos.

Labels: 2011 ELECTIONS, MMD, PF, ROY MWABA, ZCTU

posted by MrK @ 2:31 PM