By SYLVESTER MWALE, KASONDE KASONDE
and RABECCA CHIPANTA –

. CHAMA

PATRIOTIC Front (PF) secretary general Davies Chama has said the central committee is today expected to receive all the names of applicants for the parliamentary and local government seats for this year’s general elections.
Mr Chama has also warned applicants against putting the name of President Edgar Lungu into disrepute by claiming that they have already been adopted by him.
He said in an interview that the party had delayed to receive the names from Central and North-Western provinces because of some challenges in receiving applications from far-flung areas.
Mr Chama, however, assured that the ruling party was on schedule to select its candidates for the parliamentary and local government seats ahead of the nominations next month.
He appealed to applicants to support whoever would be adopted in their respective seats, saying members had many things to do for the party beyond getting adopted.
He accused some opposition political parties of struggling to find members to contest on their tickets.
“What they have now resorted to doing is to start poaching our members by lying to them that we don’t mean well to them, that is why they have not been adopted, which is a lie because the President has embraced everyone,” he said.
Mr Chama said the PF had not announced the candidates for all constituencies and it was, therefore, misleading for some members to claim they had already been adopted.
He also noted that the party had challenges to meet the 40 per cent of women candidates at parliamentary level, citing an unfriendly political environment in the country.
Meanwhile, 42 people have been shortlisted out of the 130 candidates interviewed for parliamentary seats in Lusaka Province.
PF Lusaka Province chairperson Horace Longwe said the provincial leadership had concluded interviews and out of the 130 candidates interviewed for the parliamentary seats, 42 were shortlisted.
Mr Longwe said the PF provincial leadership was currently finalising the report to be presented to the central committee.
He also said 200 candidates were shortlisted for council seats in the province out of the 500 that were interviewed.
He said the party was ready for the elections and was on the ground ensuring that its candidates that were aspiring for positions were credible.
In the meantime, the United Party for National Development (UPND) says the party is still conducting elections to select parliamentary candidates for the August 11 elections.
UPND spokesperson Charles Kakoma said the process of adoption was ongoing in some parts of the country.
“This is a countrywide process, so we have done the primary selection in other places and in other places they are still organising themselves. There are some places that are still conducting elections,” he said.