Opposition must honestly introspect

The ruling UPND has continued winning by-elections that are being held across the country in all the provinces.

Of course, the opposition political parties, especially those who have been participating in these elections, have been dismissively claiming that the results in these elections do not reflect the reality which obtains during a general election. They say that it is easy for a ruling party with the benefit of resources to concentrate those resources in a specific area, something they would struggle to replicate across the country during a general election.

The opposition have pointed to the former ruling MMD and PF as having created a track record of winning by-elections but both succumbed to general election losses to the opposition in 2011 and 2021.

It is true that the MMD and PF were winning majority of the elections they competed against the opposition during their time in power, but they usually faced tough electoral battles to win those elections, and actually lost several key elections, especially at parliamentary. In fact, rarely did the MMD as a ruling party win parliamentary elections in then main opposition PF strongholds. The trend was almost similar during the time the PF competed for elections as a ruling party against the UPND as the main opposition.

It can safely be argued that the UPND has benefited from the divisions they have helped create in the PF, where on account of those divisions the former ruling party has been unable to challenge the UPND in by-elections to offer the needed competition as a singular force.

Fred M’membe’s Socialist Party has tried to offer some semblance of competition in several elections, although not to the degree where they have successfully supplanted the ruling UPND to emerge victorious.

However, with all the arguments and explanations the opposition can provide right now, clearly there isn’t a singular opposition force right now that seems sufficiently mobilised to challenge the ruling party across the country. They also do not now have the benefit of having late former president Edgar Lungu in their forces, whose personality was sufficiently known across the country, such that even if he were not to contest the 2026 general elections, he was still going prove a valuable asset campaigning with opposition forces in 2026.

There is a reason why sitting presidents don’t like the ‘inconvenience’ of having a former president, especially the immediate one, actively participating in politics on the opposite side. That is on account of their own constituency they carry, knowledge about the critical inside happenings in government, as well as being always viewed as a reference point to the incumbent President.

The time the country faces right now in terms of the realities of politics will call for sober reflection as in the opposition doing an honest introspection about their own individual capabilities in an honest manner. Once they have done that, they will now need to chart the best course of action that would enable them compete effectively against the ruling party. It is only democratically healthy for the country to have a strong opposition competing against the ruling UPND, now and in the 2026 general elections.