People’s Alliance for Change (PAC) leader Andyford Banda says his party’s ‘impressive’ performance in the August 11 general elections was not an accident but was due to hard work and efficient use of a small pool of resources.
And Banda has rejected suggestions his party was used as a pawn in an elaborate scheme involving the ECZ and the ruling party aimed at manipulating the outcome of the elections, saying “we have absolutely no ties with the PF.”
Banda, who at 35 is the youngest candidate ever to have ever contested a presidential election since the advent of multi-party democracy in Zambia, pulled a shocker by emerging fourth, beating seasoned campaigners and well-known political figures such as Wynter Kabimba (Rainbow Party), Saviour Chishimba (United Progressive Party), Peter Sinkamba (Green Party) and Mawell Mwamba (Democratic Alliance).
Many Zambians felt the opposition leader exceeded all expectations, considering that He was a virtual unknown and only launched his party seven (7) months before the elections.
But in an exclusive interview with Zambian Eye at his home in Lusaka’s Woodlands area during the weekend, Banda revealed that his party was in fact disappointed with its performance as it did not meet its set target of third position.
“Our target was to be number three but the financial constraints were too much for us to mount a serious challenge and garner enough votes to get to number three,” Banda explained. “But thank god we got to number four at least.
“Look at the votes we got…15,700, that’s little, man! It’s not a lot of votes, yes were proud that people are happy with our performance but we are not proud that we performed. The day you’re going to see posters, see us holding rallies we should be number one.
“The fact that people are happy with our performance is what gives us strength. Now we have a platform to sell our ideas and ideals so that people do not take us as jokers who are just trying to increase numbers in politics but should see us as having the ideas, ideals and values to take this country forward.”
The soft spoken Banda brushed aside claims by some opposition politicians that his party was fraudulently given votes and challenged them to come forward with the evidence to prove the allegations.
“It’s very unfortunate that some senior politicians like talking too much instead of providing solutions. They always have an excuse for anything that doesn’t go their way. For us, we don’t get into those kinds of politics. We’ve heard those kinds of reports but we don’t have any official evidence that this person or that person was pointing at us saying the PF played some tricks to favour us. I think some people just don’t appreciate the fact that we were working.
“We did our best and we know that we were supposed to be number three but we were constrained. Otherwise we knew from the word go that some of these politicians are not in politics to serve but they are in it for other reasons. because of our deep belief, we knew that looking at where we are and were we are coming from, at least third place was guaranteed.
“So those conspiracy theories are for them to keep but the official result is that we came out number four and that’s what’s important to us because, really, this is what politicians in Zambia do. They don’t have evidence, they don’t have an official position but they continue to talk about things that are not there. We don’t want to get involved in such politics.”
Asked how his party managed to beat those with greater experience and financial resources, especially that he was not seen on the campaign trail and had limited media visibility, Banda said:
“When you’re speaking the truth, you just speak it once and the people will listen. First of all, you must remember that being on the ballot is hard work in itself because you first have to organize 1,000 supporters, 100 from each province. Now, if you manage to convince 1,000 people to be your ambassadors, they will in turn convince 10 people each. That will give you 10,000 votes already. Then we talk about the media, we used the media, we spoke once and the people listened because we spoke the truth.
“If people can put posters and have a presence everywhere but fail to get 15,000 votes then something is wrong with what they are doing. As much as I was number four, sometimes when I go through the results on the ECZ website, I just get disappointed a bit to see how we performed. Getting 70 votes in some constituencies! It’s not a lot of votes. I mean, I’m not trying to not be grateful for where we are today because obviously people look at us differently now, but I’m just trying to say if you’re going to have posters, media presence, hold rallies and travel all over the country and you fail to get 15,000 votes then there’s something you’re not doing right.”
WHATCH OUT FOR THE FULL EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH ANDYFORD BANDA TOMORROW!