Anthony Kunda in Lusaka
AN alliance of seven opposition parties that boycotted the elections – led by former president Kenneth Kaunda – has vehemently vowed never to recognise or respect the new Zambian government because “it was elected fraudulently.”
Dr Rodger Chongwe, chairman of the Liberal Progressive Front, said this week: “We will hold demonstrations, rallies, and marches right across the country to make it clear to Mr [Frederick] Chiluba that his government has no legitimacy whatsoever.”
Chibeza Mfuni, leader of the Labour Party, said: “The alliance will not apply for police permits, as required by the law, to hold meetings. We will not recognise the police or army because they are operating under an illegitimate government.”
Chiluba last week put the army and the air force on full alert.
Chongwe said at a meeting of the alliance this week in Lusaka: “There has been an increase in the militarisation of the nation. There are so many soldiers everywhere. On elections day there were heavily armed policemen and soldiers at polling stations. But Chiluba should know that you cannot force people to respect a government.”
He added: “One cannot rule out the possibility of a military takeover … But we don’t want that to happen.”
Meanwhile, Chiluba has declared a political war of attrition on the election monitoring groups that have denounced his Movement for Multiparty Democracy’s (MMD) win.
After his swearing-in ceremony, Chiluba said he would deal harshly with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that “meddled” in politics.
“We will not tolerate any invitation from NGOs to discuss bygones” he said, referring to the elections. “My resolve is to be firm but fair. If a government is not firm, its legitimacy is brought into question.”
At the weekend, armed Zambia Police Service (ZPS) officers sealed off the offices of the National Committee for Clean Campaign (NCCC), the Zambia Independent Monitoring Team (ZIMT) and Afronet, a human rights organisation, and detained leaders “for routine questioning” at Lusaka Central Police station.
Those who were briefly held are Ngande Mwanajiti, chairman of the NCCC, and ZIMT president, Alfred Zulu. Police searched their offices, and carted away several documents.
The police also obtained a court order to freeze the bank accounts of the ZIMT and the NCCC. Zulu said: “They have effectively paralysed our work, because they have taken our key documents, chequebooks, and accounting books.”
But leader of the police search team, Albertina Mununga, did not even know what her officers were looking for. “We are going to look for what we want, and return the rest,” she said.
Mwanajiti said the clampdown was aimed at hounding the NCCC and the ZIMT into silence. “This is plain harassment because we have declared the elections as not being free and fair. The question is if the elections were free and fair, why should there be so much commotion? Why all this harassment? But they will never destroy the spirit of truth.”
At a press conference early this week, Isaac Zimba, who resigned as vice president of the ZMIT in June to enter politics, was again presented to the media as vice president of the ZIMT. He used the occasion to try to discredit Zulu and Mwanajiti.
Zimba told the conference, packed with MMD cadres, and state security officers, that the ZIMT and the NCCC had been influenced into declaring the elections as fraudulent by the British high commission and the Japanese, United States, and Swedish embassies.
Zimba said journalists in the state-owned Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) had accepted bribes to provide positive coverage of ZIMT and NCCC activities. Following his statement, five journalists – Dominic Chimanyika, Charles Banda, Gershom Musonda, Abias Moyo, and Mundia Nalishebo – were suspended by the Ministry of Information’s permanent secretary Laura Harrison.
Foreign missions promptly denied such involvement. Swedish charg d’ affaires Christer Agren said: “Linking Sweden to any kind of political plot or indeed accusing her of doctoring monitors’ reports is absurd.”
British deputy high commissioner Barrie Jones said: “The British high commission has not provided any bilateral funding for NGOs monitoring elections in Zambia. These accusations are bizarre.”
Japanese embassy counsellor Takayuki Miyashita said there was “no truth in Zimba’s fabrications.”
Derrick Chitala, general secretary of the Zambia Democratic Congress (ZDC), said: “It’s clear that Chiluba will crush anyone who says that the elections were not free and fair. Some of our leaders have gone underground.”
ZDC president Dean Mung’omba has gone into hiding following reports that police are looking for him for “routine questioning.”
Zulu and Mwanajiti are expected to appear in court this Friday. But police are still sifting through ZIMT and NCCC documents for an offence. “They are basically fishing for charges,” said Sakwiba Sikota, the lawyer representing Zulu and Mwanajiti.