By PERPETUAL SICHIKWENKWE and CHILA NAMAIKO –

PRESIDENT Edgar Lungu is confident of winning the August 11 general elections and is geared to continue building on his legacy of sound leadership for the country.
President Lungu said late President Michael Sata built the Patriotic Front (PF) for all Zambians and not individuals.
He said that people who thought the PF belonged to them because they were in some way related to Mr Sata and want to ride on that were wasting their time.
“When I was in Choma, I said those who don’t want to work with us, can go and form their own party, and things started happening,” Mr Lungu said.
He said this yesterday when he addressed PF members in Nyimba during his tour of Eastern Province.
Mr Lungu said if Mr Sata built the PF for his family, he would not have invited him to join the party and appointed him to hold key posts in Cabinet.
He said the PF could not achieve the 50 per cent plus-one vote requirement in the new Constitution alone and, as such, it needed support from other members of the opposition such as MMD.
Mr Lungu urged the people of Nyimba not to be cheated by politicians who were busy boasting that they had money, which they were not using to help the people.
PF deputy secretary general Mumbi Phiri told the PF members in Nyimba that President Lungu had not endorsed anyone to contest in the forthcoming elections.
Ms Mumbi said the people themselves would choose their candidates.
She said all those who were going round in constituencies or wards claiming President Lungu had endorsed them were lying and should not be listened to.
PF provincial chairperson Andrew Lubusha informed the President and Ms Phiri that the PF structures in Nyimba were intact and were growing on a daily basis.
President Lungu also toured Nyimba Market before proceeding to Petauke.
In a related development, the PF in Southern Province is confident that President Lungu is headed for a landslide victory and will amass huge votes in the province, following the overwhelming support from the people in there, a senior PF member has said.
Mr Lungu, who was in the province in the company of First Lady Esther last week, came by road from Lusaka, and arrived to a thunderous welcome by scores of jubilant residents in the districts he visited.
PF Member of the Central Committee Syacheye Madyenkuku was impressed with the overwhelming response and support President Lungu received from the local people.
Mr Madyenkuku said President Lungu would break history and amass huge votes in the province as he had dislodged the opposition’s myth that the area was a no-go zone for him and the ruling party.
He said in an interview yesterday that the support Mr Lungu received from people in the districts he visited was an indication that the PF was gaining ground.