Lessons from the Nchanga bye election

It has now been a number of weeks since Mr. Sata's Patriotic Front returned its Nchanga Parliamentary seat despite a massive injection of time and effort by the ruling MMD. The MMD were swift to express their disappointment with the loss.
Many political commentators were actually surprised that the MMD thought they could win this seat mainly because of the way government handled the pollution of the Kafue river by KCM and the general lack of tangible development in the area under the MMD. The MMD's trusted mantra of promising development if people elected an MP from the ruling party did not work this time. What was even surprising was the fact that the President was too busy to campaign on behalf of his candidate.
In addition to the reasons advanced above, I think the MMD lost the seat because:
1. Although the economy is 'booming' the ordinary man or woman is struggling to put food on the table. People feel their lives have not improved as a result of the increased economic activity and blame GRZ and the MMD for this.
2. Defection of the incumbent MP to the MMD: The MMD candidate had been the area MP and just defected to join the MMD which triggered the bye-election. I hope by not voting for the MMD, people finally sent a strong message to the MMD that they will not tolerate these costly and unnecessary bye-elections.
3. The Electorate in Nchanga is informed with access to different sources of news. They are aware of the many bad news stories surrounding the MMD govt and have acted to punish the Govt.
4. The perceived harassment of Mr. Sata did not help the MMD cause. Unless the MMD addresses these issues they will continue losing elections in areas with an informed electorate.

The PANEL