The recent election victory by the United Party for National Development (UPND) of Zambia should serve as an inspiration especially for Namibia to understand that voters have the capacity to ‘send the regime packing and replace it with an alternative government that is promising’.
The vice president of the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP), Kennedy Shekupakela said this in a statement issued to Nampa on Thursday, in which RDP congratulates UPND and president-elect Hakainde Hichilema for a resounding victory in the recent elections in the neighbouring country.
The opposition leader defeated the incumbent president, Edgar Lungu, by a landslide with more than a million votes.
It was Hichilema’s sixth attempt at winning the presidency.
“The socio-economic suffering inflicted on our people combined with a huge gap of inequality and general poor service delivery in all sectors is supposed to be used by our people as the reasons to remove this regime through elections come November 2024,” Shekupakela said.
He said the masses in Africa should realise that when governments overstay they tend to relax, forget about the plight of the less privileged while the elite are busy looting State coffers and engage in corrupt activities for self-gratification.
“The time is now for such governments to pay heavy prices for taking advantage of the people’s ignorance for a long time,” he noted.
Shekupakela called on fellow opposition parties in the country to collectively work out a strategy for the November 2024 elections.
He said they owe that to their voters who find themselves in scattered and fragmented political formations that are in most cases characterised by bickering and infighting among themselves.
He also gave credit to the Electoral Commission of Zambia saying without their professionalism and conformity to the rule of law those results could not be possible.
On his part the All People’s Party secretary general, Vincent Kanyetu said the UPND started as a small party just like theirs, before stating that people used to mock and laugh at them not knowing they had a clear vision of what they wanted to achieve which they have attained today.
“Hichilema is the people’s leader; the type of leader that you would see at community gatherings and even funerals,” Kanyetu said.
Source: Namibia Press Agency
