Elections in Zambia

By Daimone Siulapwa

Following the violence experienced in the Mufumbwe parliamentary by-election last year, whose results have since been nullified by the Lusaka High Court, there is genuine, and understandably so, concern that the general elections to be held later this year, may not be free and fair.

But truth be told, this is not the first time that we are having violence in an election. We all, or atleast the majority of us remember the Mkaika, Chawama and Mapatizya formula. Most of the people who were involved in this violence are still active political players, and more worryingly, they have not come out in the open to condemn violence or to urge their supporters to restrain from possible violence.

Otherwise, one of the persons to have been singled out as instigating violence is Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) Lusaka province chairman William “Tekele” Banda.

Those who know him from his days as governor in the Eastern province during the UNIP understand the man perfectly well. But make no mistake, he is not the only one – there are a lot of his kind not just from within the MMD but also from the opposition ranks.

But singling out individuals as being in the forefront when it comes to election violence is not necessarily solving the problem. Why have we reached a stage in our democracy where we have to use violence during elections? This is a far more important question than most people realize.

This violence comes against a background, where as a nation, we have always prided ourselves in being a peaceful nation. While almost all our neighbours have had to deal with violence in the various stages of their history, we have largely remained a peaceful nation.

That includes our return to multi-party politics in 1991. While the country could have easily descended into chaos if Dr Kenneth Kaunda, then State President, had refused to accept the results which gave the MMD a landslide victory, he showed how true a Statesman he was by conceding long before the last vote could be counted.

However, since then, all subsequent elections organized under the MMD government have largely failed to inspire confidence, and have ultimately ended-up in the courts of law.

This started with the 1996 general elections which were boycotted by then biggest opposition party, UNIP, who claimed that the voters roll, popularly known as the Nikuv, did not inspire confidence that free and fair elections could be held.

Against all advice, Dean Mungomba, exuding confidence with his Zambia Democratic Congress (ZDC) went on to participate in the elections, believing they stood a good chance of winning. Well, let us just say, they only managed to win two Parliamentary seats with President Frederick Chiluba winning about 58 percent of the Presidential vote. This election also resulted in a petition in our Supreme Court.

After that, followed the 2001 elections, which were also fiercely contested as there was no incumbent running. The number of presidential aspirants were a record 11, Levy Mwanawasa (MMD), Anderson Mazoka (United Party for National Development), Christon Tembo (Forum for Democracy and Development), Godfrey Miyanda (Heritage Party), Tilyenji Kaunda (UNIP), Michael Sata (Patriotic Front), Nevers Mumba (National Citizens Coalition), Ben Mwila (Republican Party), Inonge Mbikusita-Lewanika (Agenda for Zambia), Gwendolyn Konie (Social Democratic Focus) and Yorum Shamapande.

Again, the outcome of the result was highly controversial with Mwanawasa winning by only a few percentage points. The aggrieved parties, mainly Mazoka, Miyanda and Tembo went to court again with a petition. After a long-protracted hearing and ruling, the court ruled in favour of Levy.

The 2006 elections were no different ,if not better. The two main opponents were Mwanawasa and Sata who had worked hard to build his party into being the main opposition party despite only having one MP in 2001. Again, it was closely contested with Mwanawasa winning by a few thousand votes. Sata was not impressed, he went to court. Same story happened in the 2008 presidential by-election won by Rupiah Banda of the MMD although Sata withdrew the petition later saying the outcome in the courts of law was almost a foregone conclusion.

That said, why do end up with election petitions all the time we have general elections? The answer is simple, few people except perhaps the ruling party have confidence in the electoral system. Few doubt whether the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) is capable of holding free and fair elections. Many people believe the body is a stooge if not an appendage of the ruling party.

With that therefore, one way to ensure that we have credible elections results respected by all is to work at our electoral system. We certainly do not want a situation similar to that one obtaining in Ivory Coast or indeed the one we saw in Zimbabwe and Kenya.

On the other hand, the violence we have been witnessing in recent elections has got everything to do with our political players failing to articulate issues. This is also evident in our media, where we have seen very little intercourse in terms of policy and issues. What we have are mostly personalities with little on how they are going to improve the lives of the Zambians.

With this lack of policy issues, when they go into a campaign, instead of addressing the problems affecting the area, all they will be doing is attacking each other, using, mostly unemployed youths drawn outside that constituency or even district and province in certain cases.

The result of all this is that the electorate is unable to freely express their view through the ballot, which in itself is an affront to democracy. As we therefore gear towards the general elections, we would want to see political players addressing more issues as against personalities.