ON 14TH MAY 2021 Chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Zambia Justice, Esau E. Chulu announced commencement of the campaigns for the 2021 tripartite elections, to be held on 12th August 2021. The best description for announcement is: give with one hand and take away with the other. Chulu did not stop at declaring Game On; on the same occasion he announced restrictions to political rallies and other gatherings in the pretext of avoiding turning these activities into sole-called super-spreaders of COVID 19.
Speaking during the launch of the electoral campaigns on Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) on 14th May, Chulu announced that the campaign period would end on Wednesday 11th August 2021 ahead of the polls the next day. The media reported that Chulu had, however, “advised political parties to desist from holding rallies or gathering crowds” and that “it was important to do away with rallies due to the current threat of the third wave of COVID-19.”
In a normal functioning society, the call for caution and restricted campaign activities due to COVID 19 would be welcomed as a responsible act. Unfortunately, it is not and it should be labelled for what it is: hypocrisy of the worst order. It can also be characterized as an extension of the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) ban on political activities of other political parties and civil society, which has defined the PF reign for the entire five years of the electoral cycle. By the way, the last five years (2016 – 2021) have been the worst and the dark cloud of democracy since the advent of multiparty democracy in 1991.
By the way, we Zambians who are not party to it should accept blame for allowing a regime to take away our civil liberties and rights while we watch. A very dangerous precedent of ‘state capture’ of rights and liberties has been set and we will leave to regret it. I will leave the discussion on this subject for another day.
In terms of the subject of the day, the ban on rallies and meetings, I proffer two reasons for my claim of hypocrisy. 1. The country underwent numerous by-elections since COVID 19 first broke out in Zambia on 18th March 2021 and yet neither the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) nor the PF government ever made such a ban; 2. the PF party, at all levels, has been holding public rallies and all manner of (‘mask less’) meetings even during the worst moments of the pandemic. To the contrary, the opposition parties have only the three months which they granted by law to do campaign using whatever means they perceive as effective.
The question is, why the ban now? The COVID 19 cases are at lower and manageable proportions, with zero-digit mortalities on many days, compared to the days when PF members were traversing the country with impunity. The vaccine is now here and some essential workers, albeit appallingly too few, have been immunized. Most of the world is now opening up, and the most draconian restrictions being lifted.
The answer to the question ‘why now? Is simple: it is because the PF knows that they have done most of the campaigns. That was the plan. Footage of various PF gatherings abounds. The same ZNBC that they have been abusing as they have been traversing the republic campaigning is the evidence. We are all witnesses.
Speaking when he featured on ZNBC’s National Watch program Patriotic Front Media Director Antonio Mwanza says the party will follow the law and adhere to the set health guidelines to the later during the campaign period.
On 24th May 2021, a Lusaka Times reader blogging as FuManchu reacted to this pronouncement with the following:
Hope the opposition parties had a hunch of this being in the pipeline of strategies by PF of how to keep them off the campaign trail! PF cannot own the Covid 19 pandemic and be advocates of MoH guidelines! PF knows that the set health guidelines work for them if only they can have them enforced by the police, then the opposition will be restricted to their coops (or enclosures) with sound proofing!
In another show of hypocrisy, PF Member of the Central Committee Given Lubinda is reported to have “bemoaned the lack of adherence to health guidelines by the Opposition UPND that ferried their supporters to Lusaka when their leader was filling in nominations.” Lubinda further said the opposition UPND did not follow Covid 19 guidelines thereby putting their supporters in danger of contracting and spreading the virus. “What is more frustrating is that people had no masks, but he had double masks and gloves. If you are a leader, you are supposed to be the first one to suffer,” he said. How many times have we seen PF gatherings with mask(less) crowds? Too numerous to single out.
I take the words of Democratic Governance and Human Rights Advocates (DEGHA) Executive Director Gerald Mutelo as mine when he says that “the ruling PF has been the number one breaker of the COVID-19 guideline evidenced by the huge crowds during its meetings with members.”
In august 2020 I published an article titled “Covid 19: Our leaders Should Stop Sending Mixed Messages”. Following are excerpts of the article, which resonate with my subject of today.
“The ruling Patriotic Front and its government, through the Ministry of Health, are the carriers of the anti-Covid 19 messages and the President, as first citizen, is Campaigner-in-chief. Images of brazen breaking of the health guidelines at events organised by or featuring senior PF and government officials sends signals of disrespect for the country’s BCC campaign strategy and sheer hypocrisy. For instance, images have been circulating online of ecstatic crowds that went to witness the President’s official launch of the Makeni flyover bridge on Monday 3rd August; majority of the people in the crowd were mask-less and not socially distanced. This applies to the people that went to offer solidarity to Health Minister Chitalu Chilufya during his court appearing on 9th July. Likewise, on 27th July Lusambo said this to the media, “I’m worried about crowds that followed me in Kitwe.” He is also on record as the most ruthless government official towards individuals who abrogated the anti-Covid 19 health guidelines in Lusaka, especially during the early days of the ‘lockdown’. His catching the virus has been described as equally hypocritical and a semblance of “do what I say not what I do”.
“These hypocritical acts and bad examples from the leadership could be said to be responsible for the country-wide non-adherence to the health guidelines. There is overwhelming research data which confirms that followers believe in and by-and-large emulate the conduct of their leaders or ‘role models’. The generally negative attitudes towards wearing face masks among Donald Trump’s supporters lends fresh evidence to this body of knowledge.”
The ECZ/PF ‘ban’ on public gatherings should be ignored by the political parties. Let them use their wisdom, consciouses and standard COVID 19 guidelines to as they fully utilize the ONLY tool that they are legally entitled to, to sell themselves. Who knows, Zambians might in fact give them a sympathy vote. Voters are not stupid.
The author is a media, governance and health communication researcher and scholar with the Institute of Economic and Social Research, University of Zambia. He is reachable on pmbozi5ATyahooDOTcom.
