Amidst the few bellowing horns and diesel chugging mini-busses racing along Great East road, cries of “Pa Bwato”, “Hichilema” or “Rupiah Banda” can be heard being belted out of loudspeakers attached to rusted roof racks as the country voted during the Presidential by-elections last Thursday, 30th October 2008.
Untypical to Zambian street life and Election day in Malta, where cars stream along stretches of road with party revellers hanging out of windows and crammed into the back of quarry trucks, and various make-shift party-vehicles, surprisingly the streets in Lusaka are noticeably deserted.
The usual raucous replaced by only sporadic shrieks from bus windows or pick-up rear cab’s from chibuku inebriated canvassers of the one or the other of the four presidential candidates, seeking to fill the vacancy let by the late President Levy Mwanawasa who died in France on August 19 after suffering a stroke in Egypt during a meeting of the African Union.
It has been a busy jam-packed couple of weeks as on the 24th of October Zambia celebrated their 44th Independence Anniversary. Only a month separates Malta from the butterfly shaped country’s right to autonomy in 1964, further underscoring Britain’s retraction (willingly or not) from colonial territories, faced with claims for post-war reparations and a rapidly re-shaping politico-economic scenario.
The nation was therefore called upon to continue exercising the right fought for nearly half a century ago, to determine the continuity of its sovereignty, even though three years prematurely, and settle the debacle of who should be the most appropriate candidate to replace the highly respected former President Mwanawasa.
All political parties have powered through the past month campaigning with typical African resolve and untiredness. The main contenders, current acting vice-president Rupiah Banda from the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) and the closely defeated candidate from the 2006 elections, Michael Sata who was elected to represent the Patriotic Front (PF) Party, both travelling to the furthermost corners of the very incongruous Zambian territory, with faithful followers flocking to every rally with bountiful fervour.
United Party for National Development (UPND) representative Hakainde Hichilema and, the Heritage Party (HP) with Godfrey Miyanda complete the list of candidates on the ballot sheets. The former whilst backed by the young and intellectuals of the country, is not considered to be a contender for these elections, but will dent the overall performance of the leading candidates and prove to be the face of the new generation of voters in the 2011 parliamentary and Presidential elections.
Due to the particular nature of the current Presidential election, it being a by-election, only those registered voters who cast their opinion in the 2006 elections were eligible to vote this time round. Out of a population of nearly 12 million, only one third of the populace are registered voters, with less than 50% of the 3.9 million people eligible to vote actually turning out on the day (45.43%) making it to the 150 constituency’s polling stations.
Polls prior to October 30th suggested a 6% turning of the tables by the PF from 2006 election results, however the outcome has once again proven pre-election polls wrong, with the majority of voters (40.9%) actually bothering to vote giving the plush seat at the Head of the State to Rupiah Banda and the ruling MMD party, beating his closest contender Michael Sata by just over 35,000 votes. The young and wealthy businessman HH as he is known here, earned himself 353,018 votes and has also been criticised for his country the change that was needed by refusing a coalition party candidature with the PF, prior to campaigning.
In his inauguration speech yesterday, RB has promised to purge poverty which sees “nearly 64 percent of the country's 11.7 million people are still living in poverty, and 51 percent are considered to be in extreme poverty, surviving on less than one dollar a day” (source; AFP online, 03/11/2008), fight corruption and, reach out to the losing parties to bridge the divide that has split Zambia in the run-up to these elections.
The results were met with relative calm, even though sporadic clashes between pro-government cadres and opposition supporters were reported in the Garden compound, where stones were thrown and market stalls set alight. However, Zambia woke-up in peace amidst certain anxieties to the verdict (which have not been officially published by the Electoral Commission of Zambia yet due to claims of rigging by the PF) and confidence in the Zambian economy has also risen after a sharp drop in trading of the Zambian Kwacha in the run-up to the elections last week.
People on the streets are however, still divided over the results from Friday’s elections. Whilst all have been urging the new incumbent to work for the whole of the populace, others have been a little more critical about the outcome. Many declaring outrage at the way polling took place and claiming various cases of ballot paper rigging. This was furthermore “substantiated” by those against the final results, as proof of RB’s alleged corruption track-record.
It is well known that PF candidate Michael Sata had the backing of the “Joe plumber’s”, as another presidential hopeful, Senator John McCain in the US likes to call the people on “main street”, but this has also led many to believe that it was precisely due to the relative educational inequality that gave RB the edge on the day, as many succumbed to the financial hand-outs (little over 50 euro cents) offered to voters by MMD cadres during campaigning in order to win “sympathy for the devil” as verification of the promise “more money in your pockets”.
One only hopes that, for the sake of the majority of the people of Zambia who live in dire poverty and those that did not vote, the President will remain true to his pre-election and inaugural speech to feed the hungry, tackle inflation and corruption.
