NRPUP Admits It's Just PF in Disguise, Vows to Bring Back Lungu Era

ONE of the most important things a political party can do during an election campaign is to tell citizens exactly what it stands for. Voters deserve honesty, even when that honesty may not be politically convenient. In that regard, the National Republican Party United Party (NRPUP) has been remarkably consistent. Its leaders have repeatedly assured Zambians that, if elected into office, they will take the country back to the way it was governed under the Patriotic Front (PF) administration of former president Edgar Lungu.

This is not the first time we are hearing this. Soon after successfully filing his nomination papers, NRPUP presidential candidate Brian Mundubile openly declared that he would govern Zambia the way Edgar Lungu governed. The public reaction was swift and critical. Yet rather than clarify or retreat from that position, the party has doubled down. Now, Mr Mundubile's running mate, Makebi Zulu, has gone even further by promising citizens that they will "go back to living the way we were living under Mr Lungu." He says it will be Dununa Reverse once more.

At least there is clarity. NRPUP is not pretending to be a new political movement. It is not asking Zambians to judge it on fresh ideas or a new vision. It is proudly presenting itself as the continuation of the PF government that Zambians overwhelmingly rejected in the 2021 general election. The obvious question, therefore, is: why should citizens vote to bring back what they consciously voted out?

Every election is an assessment of the past and a choice about the future. In 2021, millions of Zambians made a deliberate decision to remove PF from office. That verdict was not accidental or emotional. It was informed by years of lived experience. Citizens complained about political violence, cadreism, intimidation of public servants, lawlessness in markets and bus stations, corruption, abuse of office, illegal land allocations and the breakdown of public order. Those were not inventions of political opponents but realities that dominated national conversation and ultimately influenced the ballot. Today, NRPUP appears to be asking the electorate to forget all that.

When party leaders promise to restore the PF way of governing, they cannot selectively inherit only the few pleasant memories, if there are any, while distancing themselves from the failures that defined that administration. Governance comes as a complete package. If one promises to restore the PF era, one must also explain what lessons have been learnt and what exactly will be different this time. Instead, the message coming from NRPUP seeks to romanticise the past without confronting the reasons why that past came to an end.

Even more worrying is the dangerous habit of recycling falsehoods in order to secure political support. Mr Zulu repeated the unsubstantiated allegation that voters will be given four presidential ballot papers to facilitate electoral fraud. Such claims, made without evidence, only serve to undermine public confidence in the electoral process and heighten unnecessary tension. Political parties have every right to question electoral processes where there is evidence of wrongdoing. But reckless allegations, unsupported by facts, weaken democracy rather than strengthen it.