Uproar over "national unity" government

Controversy has erupted over President Levy Mwanawasa's decision to appoint key opposition members of parliament (MPs) to his cabinet, a move that critics say is a breach of Zambian law and designed to weaken his opponents. In a move unprecedented in Zambian politics, Mwanawasa on Saturday named nine opposition MPs to his government, three of them as full ministers, while the rest were given deputy ministerial positions in the name of national unity. In so doing, Mwanawasa ignored a High Court injunction restraining him from going ahead with the appointments. Under Zambian law, any MPs that cross the carpet automatically loose their seat. To become a minister one either has to be an MP or be nominated by the president. Mwanawasa had already nominated his full quota of eight legislators. On that basis, the leader of the opposition Heritage Party, retired Brig-Gen Godfrey Miyanda, won the High Court injunction restraining Mwanawasa late on Friday. But Mwanawasa, a former lawyer, responded: "The High Court cannot grant an injunction against me as president. I enjoy indemnity against injunctions as long as I am president and I think the injunction was granted in order to embarrass me so I am going ahead with the appointments in the name of national unity." Zambia's opposition parties have reacted by expelling legislators who have accepted government posts. "Our position has not changed from the time Mr. Mwanawasa said he would appoint opposition MP's to his cabinet," Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) president Christon Tembo said shortly after Mwanawasa named his new ministers. "The MP's that have accepted the cabinet positions must consider themselves expelled from our party." But Mwanawasa's response has been robust. "I don't care if the opposition expels the MP's that I will appoint," he recently told a campaign rally. "I will adopt the same MP's during the bye-elections and win." Mwanawasa has stressed that the appointments were in the "national interest" in a bid to reconcile opponents over the controversial December 2001 presidential election, ruled as flawed by international and local poll monitors. Opposition parties have petitioned the Supreme Court to have the election annulled, and key politicians and officials from the former administration of Frederick Chiluba have presented damaging testimonies of vote-buying and malpractice that have undermined Mwanawasa. "His dismissiveness of the party leaders has left many of us to wonder whether he sincerely wants to unite the country," Father Joe Komakoma, head of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP), a church-run NGO told IRIN. "He should have sat with the leaders and mapped out a strategy and terms of reference on how the new arrangement was going to work, but he did not do that so this rules out his good intention of national unity."