Chiluba keeps firing in pursuit of third term

Zambian President Frederick Chiluba fired a fourth government minister opposed to constitutional change that would allow him to run for a third five-year presidential term, news agency AP reported on Thursday.
Tourism Minister William Harrington was fired on Wednesday, Chiluba’s spokesman Richard Sakala said in a statement. He gave no reason for the move.

Harrington, who openly opposed a constitutional change to allow for more than two presidential terms, last week said he was prepared to lose his job over his position. “I have not hidden my position on the matter,” Harrington was quoted as saying. He said he was not opposed to Chiluba, but to a constitutional amendment that would damage Chiluba’s integrity.

Chiluba won Zambia’s first democratic election in 1991. He took over after 27 years of authoritarian rule by President Kenneth Kaunda, the first Zambian leader of the former British colony. Chiluba’s ruling party changed the constitution to prevent an elected president serving more than two five-year terms, and Chiluba had repeatedly promised to retire when his term ended, the report said. However, Chiluba had expelled potential challengers from his party and done nothing to groom a successor in time to campaign for elections that must be held by November, it added.