UPND Takes Another Seat In PF Backyard Of Ndola

The United Party for National Development has won another key seat on the Copperbelt, taking Chifubu constituency in the Patriotic Front stronghold of Ndola. 

UPND Candidate Lloyd Lubozha won the seat with a healthy majority of 19,295 votes - comfortably beating out the PF’s candidate Kondwani Winga on 17,542 votes. 

The opposition party is making strong gains in the battleground province, having already retained Katanshi constituency and securing a clean sweep in Ndola Central, with all constituency and local government level positions going to the UPND. 

The party was similarly successful in unseating former mines minister Richard Musukwa from his seat in Chilalabombwe, which has now gone to Paul Kabuswe. Kankoyo constituency has also fallen to the UPND’s Heartson Mabeta. 

The results reflect a broader trend which shows the Copperbelt shifting allegiance to the party of Hakainde Hichilema. PVT data shows the province has come out in strong support of the opposition leader, who is predicted to win 61.02% of presidential votes in the region. 

Official results show that Hichilema has already won the majority of votes in Chifubu constituency, which has never returned a UPND MP. HH secured 19,932 votes in the seat, trumping President Lungu’s score of 17,253. 

Observers now believe Hichilema is firmly on track to win the presidential elections, with Movement for Multi-Party Democracy leader Nevers Mumba predicting yesterday that the UPND was headed for a “very big win”. The opposition leader has now withdrawn his name from the race to become president.