Mwanawasa must be innovative - analyst

Newly-elected Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa and his ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) should be making every effort to ease tension in the country and to "legitimise its victory" amid widespread allegations of rigging during the 27 December polls, according to a political analyst. Electoral Institute of Southern Africa senior policy analyst Claude Kabemba told IRIN on Thursday that a petition lodged with the country's chief justice by disgruntled opposition parties would take a long time to resolve. "This thing can drag on for a very long time. That is the problem with the electoral system in Zambia. It does not allow a petition to be looked at before the president is sworn in," he said. In the meantime, all political stakeholders, particularly Mwanawasa, should be trying to get on with the business of government. "I think there is a need for Mwanawasa to be innovative, to go out and engage in dialogue with opposition parties, to move away from conflict and futile discussion which might continue to undermine the government's attempts to uplift the lives of Zambian people," he said. "He should be showing some moral value." At the same time, Kabemba added, "there is a need for the MMD to come clean, in spite of the fact that they won the elections, to show that their victory was genuine". "For that, the chief justice really has to make sure he comes up with recommendations to seriously look into the concerns that have been raised. You see, you never know what really happened on the ground. If they allow some verification to be done and find that there were serious irregularities, there might be serious conflict in Zambia," he said. Kabemba's comments came after France called on the Zambian authorities to investigate opposition claims that the elections were rigged, a statement from the French embassy said on Wednesday. "The opposition alleged incidents of fraud and poor management which, should they lead to formal complaints, should be investigated and resolved quickly according to law," a Sapa-AFP reported quoted the statement as saying. EU election observers said in their preliminary report that the elections were characterised by voting irregularities and poor management. Their report was heavily criticised by Mwanawasa. However, according to The Post, EU observer mission leader Michael Meadowcroft fought back this week, telling the Integrity Foundation of Zambia that there were many anomalies. He cited the Kanfinsa constituency, according to the report, where the presidential votes amounted to about 13,000 while that of parliamentary were only about 4,000. Meadowcroft advised the electoral commission to publish the results from each polling station so that people could compare them with those announced at the national level. He also said it was not normal for the Electoral Commission to start announcing election results when people were still voting in some parts of the country where the process started late.