![[Zambia] Former Zambian president Frederick Chiluba casting his vote in Lusaka. Chiluba has been facing corruption charges in the Levy Mwanawasa regime, and he recently declared his support for opposition Patriot Front leader Michael Sata. [Date picture t](https://assets.thenewhumanitarian.org/s3fs-public/styles/responsive_large_2x/public/images/20069282.jpg.webp?itok=AKxBIHLQ "Tanto eleitores como candidadatos sentem o impacto da epidemia")
President Levy Mwanawasa is reasserting his authority to ensure that Zambia's hangover from the bitterly contested elections does not become a permanent state of affairs.
In the wake of the country's fourth multiparty elections since 1991, when it emerged from 27 years of one-party rule, wide-scale rioting broke out amid allegations of voter rigging, with presidential runner-up Michael Sata, of the Patriotic Front, threatening to impose his party's policies in areas where they had an overwhelming majority.
Appeals for leniency for the scores of people arrested for riotous behaviour have fallen on deaf ears, and Sata's talk of an alternative system of government was given short thrift by Mwanawasa. "Treason, according to the penal code, amounts to a death penalty and Mr Sata should therefore not push his luck too far, because I will sort him out."
Mwanawasa first five-year term of office received glowing reviews from donor countries for his pro-market economic reforms and efforts to tackle corruption, which reduced inflation to single digits, but ordinary Zambians benefited little and Sata was able to mount a strong presidential challenge by garnering support among the two-thirds of Zambians who survive on US$1 or less a day.
According to Chibamba Kanyama, an economist based in the capital, Lusaka, Mwanawasa's second and final term of office will have to produce policies that benefit the legions of poor. "The social burden is still very high for an ordinary Zambian. As private-sector participation has now gone up by three times in the last three years, we should expect President Mwanawasa's new government to focus on investing in better public services, and improving the wealth of the citizenry in general."
It appears that Mwanawasa's new government is taking a leaf from Sata's book of election promises. Sata raged against Chinese investors for plundering the country's resources, and said he would increase mineral taxes, currently set at 0.6 percent, far below the global average of about 3 percent.
According to Finance Minister Ng'andu Magande, "We are seriously working out a programme to urgently review all our development agreements with mining investors, and increase the royalty tax to an average of 2.5 percent for copper."
Zambia's copper mines were privatised in the 1990s. After South African mining conglomerate Anglo-American pulled out, Chinese mining concerns were attracted by preferential tax concessions. Their investment coincided with a global commodities boom that has seen the copper price explode from $US1,200 a tonne to above US$8,000 a tonne.
Mwanawasa won the presidential election with 42 percent of the vote, ahead of Sata's 29 percent, but the president's Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) failed to take the parliamentary seats in the capital, Lusaka, and the country's economic heartland, Copperbelt Province.
NEW CABINET
A new Cabinet with a combination of veteran and maiden politicians - mostly from regions that supported the MMD ticket - was announced this week.
Mwanawasa retained nearly all re-elected members of parliament (MPs) who had served in his first government, and as his number two brought in Rupiah Banda, 69, a former minister in founding president Kenneth Kaunda's government, while novice politicians included former president Frederick Chiluba's ex-wife, Vera.
No fresh appointments were made from regions backing Sata - Northern, Luapula, Copperbelt and Lusaka provinces - or from those in southern Zambia supporting the United Democratic Alliance's presidential candidate, Hakainde Hichilema, who secured 26 percent of the presidential vote.
"This is a government of multiple choice, where you just appoint ministers from the regions that voted for you or those who personally supported you - we needed a broader and much more national representation," said Joyce Nonde, president of the Federation of Free Trade Unions in Zambia.
Both Sata and Hichilema have refused to test the election results in the Supreme Court because, according to Sata, "election petitions are a mere academic exercise in Zambia, and a waste of time and resources, as judgment is always entered in favour of the ruling party."
Even so, the ongoing verification of election results in a number of constituencies has revealed glaring disparities between the official results announced by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ), and those announced at the polling stations. In Ndola, capital of the Copperbelt, verified results indicated that Sata and his MPs obtained far more votes than announced by the ECZ.
Critics said although both politicians were looking forward to the 2011 general election, age was catching up with the Sata, a shrewd politician, and only Hichilema would stand a realistic chance. Sata is 69 years old, while Hichilema, a businessman on the boards of over 20 companies, is 42.
NO CHANGE IN CORRUPTION DRIVE
Mwanawasa has not broken step in the corruption drive he embarked on during his first term, which has seen former President Chiluba in and out of court.
Ten days after the poll on 28 September, a Lusaka High Court judge sentenced Samuel Musonda, a former director of the bank alleged to have been fraudulently used by the Chiluba administration for "plundering state resources", to two years' imprisonment with hard labour. Musonda was the second of Chiluba's officials to be convicted of corruption charges after his former press aide, Richard Sakala, served a three-year jail sentence.
In the run-up to the poll, Chiluba endorsed Sata's candidature for presidency in what was seen as a desperate bid to have his court cases dropped, although he contradicted a law banning former presidents from being partisan, which he had enacted in 1996. Sata had promised to disband Mwanawasa's Task Force on Corruption and drop all cases of corruption against Chiluba if he won.
Analysts said Chiluba, who has been enduring a heart problem since 2005, would be in for a tough time during Mwanawasa's new term. However, Emmanuel Mwamba, the former president's press aide, insisted that "Dr Chiluba has no ill-feelings about Mr Mwanawasa. In fact, he has offered himself for advice whenever called upon by the government."
Chiluba is scheduled to travel to South Africa soon for his regular medical check-up, but a string of court cases awaits him next month.
Mwanawasa's former administration also left constitutional reforms half done and awaiting the formation of an ad hoc committee of experts to review the final draft of a proposed new constitution. According to local media, the document is expected to be ready after 2008.
Bonny Tembo, executive director of the Anti-Voter Apathy Project, a civic organisation that monitors elections, told IRIN: "Whichever way, and at whatever cost, we expect a new constitution before 2011, now that President Mwanawasa has been re-elected. All these cases of electoral fraud and, indeed, the president winning from a majority support of rural farmers, are clear indicators that Zambia needs a new constitution."
The new constitution promises to make electing a president more clear-cut in Zambia, with a key requirement that a presidential candidate should win by 50 percent plus one, after eliminating other hopefuls in rounds of voting.
nm/go/he
In the wake of the country's fourth multiparty elections since 1991, when it emerged from 27 years of one-party rule, wide-scale rioting broke out amid allegations of voter rigging, with presidential runner-up Michael Sata, of the Patriotic Front, threatening to impose his party's policies in areas where they had an overwhelming majority.
Appeals for leniency for the scores of people arrested for riotous behaviour have fallen on deaf ears, and Sata's talk of an alternative system of government was given short thrift by Mwanawasa. "Treason, according to the penal code, amounts to a death penalty and Mr Sata should therefore not push his luck too far, because I will sort him out."
Mwanawasa first five-year term of office received glowing reviews from donor countries for his pro-market economic reforms and efforts to tackle corruption, which reduced inflation to single digits, but ordinary Zambians benefited little and Sata was able to mount a strong presidential challenge by garnering support among the two-thirds of Zambians who survive on US$1 or less a day.
According to Chibamba Kanyama, an economist based in the capital, Lusaka, Mwanawasa's second and final term of office will have to produce policies that benefit the legions of poor. "The social burden is still very high for an ordinary Zambian. As private-sector participation has now gone up by three times in the last three years, we should expect President Mwanawasa's new government to focus on investing in better public services, and improving the wealth of the citizenry in general."
It appears that Mwanawasa's new government is taking a leaf from Sata's book of election promises. Sata raged against Chinese investors for plundering the country's resources, and said he would increase mineral taxes, currently set at 0.6 percent, far below the global average of about 3 percent.
According to Finance Minister Ng'andu Magande, "We are seriously working out a programme to urgently review all our development agreements with mining investors, and increase the royalty tax to an average of 2.5 percent for copper."
Zambia's copper mines were privatised in the 1990s. After South African mining conglomerate Anglo-American pulled out, Chinese mining concerns were attracted by preferential tax concessions. Their investment coincided with a global commodities boom that has seen the copper price explode from $US1,200 a tonne to above US$8,000 a tonne.
Mwanawasa won the presidential election with 42 percent of the vote, ahead of Sata's 29 percent, but the president's Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) failed to take the parliamentary seats in the capital, Lusaka, and the country's economic heartland, Copperbelt Province.
NEW CABINET
A new Cabinet with a combination of veteran and maiden politicians - mostly from regions that supported the MMD ticket - was announced this week.
Mwanawasa retained nearly all re-elected members of parliament (MPs) who had served in his first government, and as his number two brought in Rupiah Banda, 69, a former minister in founding president Kenneth Kaunda's government, while novice politicians included former president Frederick Chiluba's ex-wife, Vera.
No fresh appointments were made from regions backing Sata - Northern, Luapula, Copperbelt and Lusaka provinces - or from those in southern Zambia supporting the United Democratic Alliance's presidential candidate, Hakainde Hichilema, who secured 26 percent of the presidential vote.
"This is a government of multiple choice, where you just appoint ministers from the regions that voted for you or those who personally supported you - we needed a broader and much more national representation," said Joyce Nonde, president of the Federation of Free Trade Unions in Zambia.
Both Sata and Hichilema have refused to test the election results in the Supreme Court because, according to Sata, "election petitions are a mere academic exercise in Zambia, and a waste of time and resources, as judgment is always entered in favour of the ruling party."
Even so, the ongoing verification of election results in a number of constituencies has revealed glaring disparities between the official results announced by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ), and those announced at the polling stations. In Ndola, capital of the Copperbelt, verified results indicated that Sata and his MPs obtained far more votes than announced by the ECZ.
Critics said although both politicians were looking forward to the 2011 general election, age was catching up with the Sata, a shrewd politician, and only Hichilema would stand a realistic chance. Sata is 69 years old, while Hichilema, a businessman on the boards of over 20 companies, is 42.
NO CHANGE IN CORRUPTION DRIVE
Mwanawasa has not broken step in the corruption drive he embarked on during his first term, which has seen former President Chiluba in and out of court.
Ten days after the poll on 28 September, a Lusaka High Court judge sentenced Samuel Musonda, a former director of the bank alleged to have been fraudulently used by the Chiluba administration for "plundering state resources", to two years' imprisonment with hard labour. Musonda was the second of Chiluba's officials to be convicted of corruption charges after his former press aide, Richard Sakala, served a three-year jail sentence.
In the run-up to the poll, Chiluba endorsed Sata's candidature for presidency in what was seen as a desperate bid to have his court cases dropped, although he contradicted a law banning former presidents from being partisan, which he had enacted in 1996. Sata had promised to disband Mwanawasa's Task Force on Corruption and drop all cases of corruption against Chiluba if he won.
Analysts said Chiluba, who has been enduring a heart problem since 2005, would be in for a tough time during Mwanawasa's new term. However, Emmanuel Mwamba, the former president's press aide, insisted that "Dr Chiluba has no ill-feelings about Mr Mwanawasa. In fact, he has offered himself for advice whenever called upon by the government."
Chiluba is scheduled to travel to South Africa soon for his regular medical check-up, but a string of court cases awaits him next month.
Mwanawasa's former administration also left constitutional reforms half done and awaiting the formation of an ad hoc committee of experts to review the final draft of a proposed new constitution. According to local media, the document is expected to be ready after 2008.
Bonny Tembo, executive director of the Anti-Voter Apathy Project, a civic organisation that monitors elections, told IRIN: "Whichever way, and at whatever cost, we expect a new constitution before 2011, now that President Mwanawasa has been re-elected. All these cases of electoral fraud and, indeed, the president winning from a majority support of rural farmers, are clear indicators that Zambia needs a new constitution."
The new constitution promises to make electing a president more clear-cut in Zambia, with a key requirement that a presidential candidate should win by 50 percent plus one, after eliminating other hopefuls in rounds of voting.
nm/go/he
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
Share this article