Zambia’s President Levy Mwanawasa this week returned to office after winning the controversial September 28 general election, but there is ongoing controversy over the transparency of the election.
Mwanawasa won with 42% of the 2,5-million votes cast while his closest rival, Michael Sata of the Patriotic Front (PF), polled 29% and the United Democratic Alliance’s Hakainde Hichilema walked away a close third, with 26%.
Local observers and monitors have roundly condemned the fourth multiparty election since the end of one-party rule in 1991 as having been marred with wide-scale fraud. A number of flaws were recorded during both the voting and counting processes.
In a joint statement three local civic organisations — the Foundation for Democratic Process, the Southern African Centre for Constructive Resolution of Disputes and the Anti-Voter Apathy Project — said: ”It is our view that while this year’s tripartite elections met most of the benchmarks for a credible and acceptable election, we have serious reservations in the area of results.
”There were discrepancies in some results figures, discrepancies in the total numbers of voters for presidential and parliamentary candidates, as well as some discrepancies in figures on three levels of results — polling station, collation and national centre.”
At least four constituencies in Lusaka recorded up to 30 000 votes less in the presidential race than the total number of votes cast in the parliamentary contest. In Eastern province monitors cited a number of constituencies that recorded more votes than the total number of registered voters while in North-Western province’s Kabompo town missing sealed presidential ballot boxes were found open in the custody of a senior government official. In Namwala in southern Zambia at least four electoral officers and a police officer are under investigation after they were found tampering with the presidential election ballots.
But foreign observers said the elections were free and fair. ”We were impressed by the commitment and professionalism of polling and counting officials, who for the most part were able to deal competently and satisfactorily with the few problems that arose during the voting and counting processes,” said Commonwealth Observer Group chairperson Paul Berenger, the former president of Mauritius. ”All the indications are that these elections, in almost all aspects, represent a significant improvement on the 2001 polls.”
Last Thursday’s election was held under the new electoral law, which banned the media from announcing the results before the official declaration by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) — but critics said the law had only served to amplify growing suspicions of fraud.
”This delay by the ECZ to announce the results, and the forbidding of the media to announce results based on their journalistically obtained data from constituencies, is meant to give ample time for the MMD to rig the elections which we have already won with a landslide margin,” said the PF’s director of research, Chileshe Mulenga after Mwanawasa started moving ahead of the other candidates on Sunday evening.
Sata had topped the presidential tally for the first two counting days with 50% before his fortunes changed on Sunday. The same evening violent clashes ensued between security forces and the opposition leader’s supporters in Lusaka and other towns of Northern and Copperbelt provinces — the main stronghold of Sata’s political organisation. Businesses remained closed throughout Monday as the vote counting process continued amid widespread tension in the country. Mwanawasa’s re-election comes on the heels of his first five-year term, which has been marked by a renewed anti-corruption campaign and the introduction of several market-driven policies that led to increased economic growth. Bank interest rates have been reduced, inflation rates have dropped to single digits for the first time in three decades and the country’s currency, the kwacha, appreciated significantly after a significant portion of Zambia’s external debt was written off in 2005.
But analysts say the benefits of Mwanawasa’s sound policies have not trickled down to the people, and ”this should be one reason why the urban elite voted against the MMD government in the just-ended elections”, said Lusaka-based economist and business management consultant Chibamba Kanyama.
Kanyama said Mwanawasa’s re-election would only be appreciated once his policies started paying off for the people. ”The social burden is very high for an ordinary Zambian and that’s what you expect when the country spends five years fighting to stabilise the economy. As private sector participation has now gone up by three times in the last three years, we should expect the government to invest in better public services and better living standards for the people,” Kanyama remarked.
Prior to the election PF’s Sata successfully sold his populist tax-slashing campaign to the 400 000 government workers who have been paying up to 37% in tax on their monthly basic salaries.
Although Sata has lost the vote to Mwanawasa, the issue of taxes remains of concern. ”This issue of reducing tax should be adequately tackled and we also need strengthened social security systems where our people can lead decent lives even after retiring,” said Zambia Congress of Trade Unions president Leonard Hikaumba.
Retired civil servants in Zambia take up to 10 years before getting their retirement packages while former servicemen earn as little as $10 a month, roughly the price of a 25kg bag of ground maize meal.
On Wednesday Sata pledged to continue with his campaign for a better Zambia, telling the media in Lusaka that ”within 90 days from now, we shall reduce land rates and start building better housing facilities for our people in townships under the PF-run councils [municipalities]. We shall also clear all salary arrears for council workers so that in the next election our ability to deliver will be speaking on their own.”