Election Fever - Zambian Style

At the moment Zambia is awash with colour, noise and lots of speculation as the country goes to the polls on August 11th to choose, not only the next President, but the next Government, Town and City mayors and, for the first time in Zambia, there is a referendum.

Since 1964 when Zambia gained its independence there have been 6 Presidents starting with Dr Kenneth Kaunda followed by Frederick Chiluba, Levy Mwanawasa, Rupiah Banda, Michael Sata and the present incumbent, His Excellency Edgar Lungu. The Presidential elections are held every 5 years so I hear you asking why if President Lungu was only elected in January 2015 is Zambia having another election. The answer comes with the sad fact that Mr Sata died in office in October 2014 having been elected in September 2011. President Lungu was elected to continue the term of office of his predecessor. 

The Zambian voting system broadly follows that of the UK system in that it is a first past the post system with everyone over the age of 18 eligible to vote. Votes are cast in secret at a Polling Station very much like a UK one, often in a school but always in a “Government” building. The polling stations will open in the morning at 05.00 and close at 18.00 often with very long queues. The main difference it that here, besides your constituency MP, you will also vote for a President. Also at the same time you will have two more ballot papers, one for Mayor and one for Town Councillor, plus this year a referendum on amendments to the Bill of Rights or Constitution. To ensure that you only vote once you have to put your thumb on an ink pad and I have been told it will not come off for several days despite how many times you scrub it.

President Lungu is a member of the Patriotic Front (PF) party while his main challenger appears to be Hakainde Hichilema (popularly known as HH) of the United Party for National Development (UPND) who came a close second at the 2015 election.

I started by saying that the campaigning is a colourful and noisy affair. Around Ndola and the Copperbelt area large posters, banners and people’s clothes are bright green, the colour of the PF party, that appears to be very strong in this area. However, there are also banners over the roads and on cars of the bright red which is the UPND party colours and also it seems, the Rainbow Party colours as a few large banners are visible from them. The noise comes from the open backed vehicles carrying supporters from the various parties and huge sound systems playing music in support.

Large banner signs on the roads in the Copperbelt for the various parties

In the main, as usual, it has been a very peaceful contest so far but there have been a few reports of trouble in one area or another. The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) suspended campaigning in Lusaka and a few other places for a short time recently to allow things to calm down. Many of the Political Parties have called on the churches to organise a National Day of Prayer before the elections to ask for a peaceful elections. This of course is what we would all hope and pray for.

The election rallies that have been held here in Ndola all seem to have been very peaceful and fun. Many fantastic costumes and clothes were seen being worn by the various party supporters

Colourful bands and costumes

Like all elections it would be fantastic if it can be a peaceful and fair election with the best man and party coming out on top.