If we are to get Zambia back to pro-poor governance, people-centred development, and household-focused economic growth, it will not happen in an environment of acute opposition disunity. Please, this is not classroom ideology. This is real arithmetic data.
Lubinda publicly pledged allegiance to the party founded by Michael Chilufya Sata, to the Patriotic Front as stewarded by Edgar Chagwa Lungu, and to the Tonse Alliance, which he reminded the gathering was established to strengthen unity among opposition forces.
In this Kasama scope, the smallest wards include Lusenga with 2,486 registered voters, Musowa with 3,199, Kapanda with 3,382, Chumba with 3,568, and Lualuo with 3,603. These numbers are real, but their weight is limited. Allowing early returns from small wards to dominate public conversation creates perfect cover for mischief, hidden behind manufactured momentum while the major wards remain outstanding.
Elections are not won by emotion or sentiment alone. I hope this reflection awakens the opposition otherwise we should be honest enough to admit that another five years of UPND governance is a real possibility - UNLESS!
Clearly, Makebi Zulu gives the UPND regime sleepless nights. His homecoming today, 19 January 2026, was no different. For the first time since surviving a serious road traffic accident in December, Makebi Zulu returned to his home in Malambo Constituency.
Collaboration, dialogue, and negotiated consensus are not signs of weakness, they are strategic necessities if a credible alternative is to emerge.
PF’s performance in Southern Province has historically been marginal, at times falling below one percent, with humiliating vote gaps in certain by-elections. The conclusion is unavoidable. Southern Province is not where elections are won for the opposition. Pretending otherwise is strategic fantasy.
The results make the deeper story unavoidable. FDD, backed by PF, obtained 8,085 votes. CF secured 1,534. Independent candidates together collected 894. NCP added 319. EPPP contributed 239. LM had 100. NDC recorded 93. When these opposition votes are placed together, they total 11,264. UPND managed 6,542.
As we approach the 2026 general elections here in Zambia, I would like to urge opposition political parties to not only run emotionally driven campaigns with nice slogans and danceable music. They must invest heavily in data and systems if they are to avoid being shocked on 13 August. On election day, it is not slogans that decide outcomes. It is numbers.
The programme did not resolve PF’s leadership question, nor was it intended to. What it did was strip away the illusion that delay carries no cost.