FOUR UPND MPs VOTED AGAINST BILL 7 – PRESIDENT HICHILEMA

Thank you very much. Thank you very much. We're very happy to be here this morning. As you know, we are always happy to be here. We see your love. I'm sure you see our love for you. So we need to work to keep the gains that we have made in the last 4 years and 10 months. We do not need to move backwards. We need to keep our children in school. Free education which we've made into law now. We need to keep our children in school. As you know, before we came into office there were no... We know that we are now making progress after great difficulties when we took public office. We must maintain these gains by keeping the UPND in office. We don't have a choice unless you want to go back to being beaten. If you wore a red t-shirt, you arrived in Lusaka inter city dressed, you got beaten. Do you want to go back to those days? We want to keep our children in school free of charge, school feeding system, health learners, more teachers, more medical workers. No going back. So my message is simple. God gave us an opportunity to correct the mistakes of the past. We should not defy God by going backwards and entertaining the very opposition that made our life difficult not long ago. I know some people would have said, 'No, me, I wanted that councilor in...' 'No, I wanted that one in Kimasala,' 'I wanted that one in Kapi.' I know, but once we make a decision as a team, one person represents us at the council level, at the council level, at the council level, at the mayor level, at the MP level. One person. Can you have two presidential candidates for UPND at one time? There's only one of them, and you chose this fellow. Because if we divide ourselves amongst ourselves, we are creating space for those who created or brought us problems. Without you knowing, you'll be creating room for those... Amen. Because when you split your votes because you don't like that councilor, you like the other one, by splitting the vote because you don't like this man, you want the other one from the same house, same family. Same family. 'No, I don't want that MP. I want this one.' Let me remind you, in UPND we have had many MPs from 1998. Why didn't they bring free education? The MP does not bring free education. The one who brings free education is the president. Explain that. I want you to tell me, why didn't the MPs we have had bring CDF to 40 million per year per constituency? It is the president who brought the 40 million per constituency per year. The important seat is that of the president. That's the one who forms government. The rest of them are there to support the president, to vote in parliament. And that's why we want MPs who vote for the UPND and the president's motions in parliament, not those who vote against Bill 7. We want MPs who follow the party programs in parliament. Some of our MPs voted against Bill 7. Without Bill 7 passing, we would have never had a new constituency here in... in Zambia. This province now has a lot more MPs because the UPND MPs followed the instruction to vote for Bill 7. But we have four MPs that refused to vote for Bill 7. And I will name them: Garing Combo, Moima, Samaki, and Manga. We don't want MPs like that because without Bill 7 there will be no women coming into parliament this coming year. We want loyal councilors, those who work with the president. We want loyal mayors, those who work with the president. We want loyal MPs who will work with the president. If we didn't win Bill 7, we would have had no women in parliament under proportional representation because of Bill 7 and because of those who had to behave properly, and we didn't have enough MPs. We had to use MPs from other parties in order to win Bill 7, to bring women, to bring youth and those with disabilities in parliament. That is the mistake we don't want to make going forward. That's why we don't need divisions now. Do not let me down. This is my home. This is the best of UPND. If you are not happy with one candidate, think of the president. You love the president. Welcome. Welcome. Thank you.