After only 5 text/email alerts to US citizens about elections riots, the Zambian Presidential election has been decided in very peaceful
terms compared to history and the potential for violence. Much to the utter joy and sheer
surprise of Zambian citizens, this election sees the political party MMD
(Movement for Multi-party Democracy) lose power for the first time in Zambian
history since independence in the 1970s.
And they didn’t go down without a fight.
Four years ago the same election battle was fought between MMD’s Rupiah
Banda and PF’s (Patriotic Front) Michael Sata. If there were pre election polls (there aren’t here) than
Michael Sata would have been a pre-election lock to win. And with about 50% of the vote counted
it was looking like he was going to win, carrying about 70% of the vote. Then the live counting stopped for a
day and the results were announced; the incumbent Rupiah Banda was the
winner. The nation was shocked. Everyone knew Banda rigged the
elections but couldn’t really say it because he now had unchecked power.
This year, Sata would have carried 90% of the entire nation if they all
voted but because the memory of four years ago still haunted voters, many of
them were discouraged from voting because they believed no matter how they
voted, Rupiah would rig the elections and win. So with only 1.2 Million votes casted out of a total of 12
million registered voters, the vote was counted again live on television. At about 60% of all districts counted, showing Sata in the lead by 80,000 votes, the counting stopped yet again. Riots broke out in the streets in the
middle of town and near a public mall as a feeling of corruption deja vu overcame the country.
The riots died down at around 1 am when the results were announced. Sata wins by a landslide. And the crowd goes wild.
Since it’s against Zambian (maybe all of Sub-Saharan African) campaign
procedure to discuss a platform while campaigning (I have heard this is out of
fear that the opponent will then use your ideas while in office if they win?)
no one is really sure what Sata is going to do while in office but the thought
of most Zambians is that any change from the corrupt Rupiah is good. Lets hope its good change. There’s a lot of room for improvement.
Addendum: So new news has
emerged that Rupiah didn’t lose as peacefully as everyone originally
thought. Apparently after a failed
attempt to rig the elections the same way as he did in previous years, he was
reported to have been begging a vote counting official to do anything to help
him win. This official didn’t and
is now talking about his pitiful conversations with Rupiah just before the vote
was about to be announced….Also, I listened to Sata’s speech to parliament as
they recently opened for Sata’s tenure and with equal parts determination to
change Zambia and cutting humor aimed at the missteps of his predecessors he
has won over the people of Zambia.
He is very anti-corruption and his main goal is to put more money in the
pockets of Zambians. I’d say both
of these things could do wonders here.
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