Mandevu: five days in UPND, straight to the ticket, genius or political insult?

The case of Adrian Banda’s miracle adoption and Christopher Shakafuswa’s surprise benching.

Zambian politics has once again reminded us that loyalty is admirable, but apparently optional when elections are involved.

Adrian Banda rejoined the UPND on 2 October. Five days later, he was adopted as the party’s candidate for the Mandevu parliamentary by-election.

Five days. Some people spend five days waiting for a bank loan. Banda spent five days in the UPND and got a parliamentary ticket.

Meanwhile, Christopher Shakafuswa, the incumbent Mandevu MP, a familiar face in the constituency and the man who had already carried the UPND flag in the August election, has been left watching from the political touchline.

The obvious question is: Was Shakafuswa betrayed, or has the UPND simply decided that politics is about winning rather than rewarding loyalty?

To be fair to the UPND, Banda is not some political tourist who arrived yesterday. He previously contested in Mandevu and, in the August election, was among the serious contenders. The election was eventually nullified after the disruption at the results-totalling centre, forcing a fresh poll.

So the UPND may have looked at the numbers and concluded that Banda has something extremely valuable in politics: a personal vote.

If Banda can attract voters even without a major party behind him, why fight him when you can put him on your side? That is not betrayal. That is political arithmetic.

Source: https://www.lusakatimes.com/2026/10/07/mandevu-five-days-in-upnd-straight-to-the-ticket-genius-or-political-insult/