Defections to PF are stage managed – HH

United Party for National Development (UPND) president Hakainde Hichilema says the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) is deceiving itself by stage managing defections from opposition political parties.

Mr. Hichilema’s observation follows the defection of 1,200 UPND and MMD members to join the ruling PF on Saturday at a ceremony held in Lusaka’s Mandevu township.

Mr. Hichilema says no person in his right mind of thinking can defect to the ruling PF when they can barely afford a bag of mealie meal due to the high cost of living.

He adds that it does not make sense for anyone to join a political party associated with violence and has stolen people’s freedoms.

The UPND leader says the alleged staged managed PF defections are in response to the defectors his party has been receiving from other political parties.

Mr Hichilema notes that the PF is using the similar tactics to the ones the MMD was using while in power of stage managing defections, but still ended up losing the elections.

And MMD Acting National Secretary Chembe Nyangu has told Qfm News in a separate interview that his party is surprised that members that left the party when it lost power to the PF in the 2011 general elections are the same ones being paraded as having defected to the PF.

Mr. Chembe says as far as the former ruling party%u2019s structures in Mandevu are concerned, there are no records that show that the party has lost any member through defections.