United Democratic Front (UDF) presidential candidate Atupele Muluzi says there are one million loyal UDF members in the country who have already made a decision to vote for him in the 2019 elections.
Speaking during a whistle stop campaign trail he conducted on Monday in Lilongwe City starting from Lilongwe old town to areas 50, 24 and 23, Muluzi said he has one million votes for the UDF in his pocket from real members of the party saying these will vote for the UDF.
Muluzi observed that over 6.8 million people have been registered for the May 21 tripartite elections and not all will vote which gives a clear picture that about 5 million people are likely to vote.
He said four presidential candidates will battle it out for the 5 million votes.
Muluzi claimed that UDF is the only party which has members who have not moved to join other parties and this gives hope that the party will do well in the elections.
He said he learnt from the late Zambian president, Michael Chilupsya Sata, that in every elections the last 3 weeks are so crucial for the voters to make informed decisions on who and which party to vote for.
On development, the UDF leader said his party in 1994 introduced free primary education with a purpose of ensuring that learners are given access to free education in the country’s public primary schools.
He however noted that the free primary education is not free as evidenced by the poor communities who are being forced to pay for free primary education.
Muluzi assured the gathering that once the party is voted into power on May 21, free primary education will be free as previously was during the reign of the UDF.
He added that the UDF party is ready to bring back economic change in the peoples’ houses saying during its reign, people had money in their pockets which made them to be free in their mind unlike today where everyone is crying for money and the money is nowhere to be seen.
In his remarks, UDF parliamentary candidate for Lilongwe City central constituency, Innocent Baisi, reminded the people of the previous parliamentarians for the area who deserted voters after being voted into power.
Baisi said time has now come for them to vote for UDF which will bring in tangible developments as previously implemented by the former UDF parliamentarian, late Mary Kaphwereza Banda claiming that other candidates who came after her did nothing.
Lilongwe City Centre constituency has 13 parliamentary candidates battling out for one seat.
Story by Vincent Gunde
I think Atupele Muluzi is a genius. At 40 years he has 1million votes. I am sure by the time he is 50years old, he will likely amass 2 million votes. And it will be easy for him to be vice president or indeed president. His wife will be the first lady.