Mpongwe poll will be walkover for PF - Mwewa

Mpongwe poll will be walkover for PF - Mwewa
By Misheck Wangwe in Kitwe
Fri 11 Jan. 2013, 13:58 CAT

PF Copperbelt chairman Robert Mwewa has declared that the Mpongwe parliamentary by-election will be a walkover for the ruling party.

In an interview, Mwewa said the people in the rural districts of the Copperbelt had realised that tangible development could only be achieved by working closely with the party in power.

Mwewa said MMD president Nevers Mumba was day-dreaming by suggesting that the party had the strongest hold in Mpongwe and was ready to work alone in the forthcoming by-election.

"We are preparing in earnest for the Mpongwe by-election. We want the MMD to know that Zambians are no longer interested in political parties that have lost credibility. We have put our logistics in place; we will be in full gear when the campaigns start," Mwewa said.

He said it was a joke of the year for the MMD to think that they were more popular than the PF in Mpongwe when many of those that strongly believed in the former ruling party had defected and resolved to work with the PF government.
"It will be a landslide for the PF in Mpongwe and when we do so, we don't want them to complain like they are complaining right now before we even start. They are yet to feel the heat," Mwewa said. "Nevers Mumba is lying to himself and the remaining few MMD members nationwide when he is aware of what is pertaining in Mpongwe," Mwewa said.

He said the PF would give the people of Mpongwe the development that it promised before it assumed power, including the much-talked about Mpongwe-Machiya road as the works were underway.

"Every major development the people of Mpongwe so desire like schools, health centres and roads are in the 2013 budget, and we will do it. So he (Nevers Mumba) cannot continue deceiving himself about Mpongwe. The PF is stronger than ever before," Mwewa said.

He further appealed to political parties participating in the Mpongwe by-election to exercise restraint when the campaigns begin and learn to co-exist as Zambia was a democracy.

The Mpongwe parliamentary seat fell vacant after the resignation of Gabriel Namulambe, who has since joined PF.
The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) has set February 28 for the Mpongwe by-election.