By DELPHINE ZULU –
OPPOSITION United Party for National Development (UPND) will not garner expected votes from their stronghold due to failure by its Members of Parliament (MPs) to foster development in their constituencies.
The MPs, especially those that had served two terms from their stronghold have since been challenged to cite any meaningful development they had taken to their various constituencies using the Constituency Development Funds (CDF).

. FR BWALYA

Patriotic Front (PF) information and publicity chairperson Frank Bwalya said the CDF was a tool meant to engineer infrastructure growth in various constituencies countrywide through MPs.
He said the electorate was not impressed with MPs who were not adding any value or improving their constituencies, saying this would have a bearing on how their president performs in the elections.
“The UPND will not have it easy to win next year’s general elections due to their MPs’ failure to develop their constituencies using the CDF, this would have helped their president win elections by improving people’s lives,” he said.
The CDF which is a Government intervention aimed at financing micro-community-based projects to alleviate poverty is now pegged at K1.3 million per constituency.
He said people from Southern Province and other parts of the country had realised that voting for a political party that did not improve their livelihood was inviting perpetual poverty, hence their decision to go for a party that did not segregate in spreading development.
Father Bwalya said the PF MPs would equally not have it easy because they knew that for them to be adopted; they would have developed their constituencies and interacted with people at grassroot level.
“Our MPs will not have it on a silver platter, but for them it has been a question of riding on a party, they do not care about people’s lives and they still voted for them, this time people in Southern Province have seen the need to vote for people who will improve their lives,” Father Bwalya said.
“CDF is one sure way of implementing development in a simultaneous fashion around the country but looking at how it has been used, one can attest to the fact that it is not utilised accordingly especially by those in the opposition in Southern Province to be specific,” he said.
Father Bwalya warned that Zambians now know that voting was no longer based on political parties but what one has done for the people of Zambia and in particular constituencies.