SANF 06 No 86
President Levy Mwanawasa has been sworn in for a second term of office and another chance to advance Zambia’s economic renaissance.
The 58-year-old lawyer got 1,177,846 votes or 42.98 percent of the 2,740,178 valid votes cast during Zambia’s fourth multiparty elections held on 28 September.
His closest rival in the tightly contested polls, Michael Sata of the Patriotic Front (PF), amassed 29.37 percent of the votes cast or 804,748 votes.
Sata initially led when vote-counting started on 28 September but was overtaken by Mwanawasa by the weekend.
The PF leader got most of his votes in urban areas, where he led Mwanawasa in the capital Lusaka and the predominantly urban Copperbelt region.
United Democratic Alliance president, Hakainde Hichilema, took third place with 693,772 votes or 25.32 percent of the total, while Heritage Party’s Godfrey Miyanda was fourth with 42,891 votes, representing 1.57 percent of the total votes cast.
All People’s Congress Party president, Winright Ngondo, came last out of the five presidential candidates, with 20,921votes representing 0.76 percent.
Sata conceded defeat soon after the final results were announced and appealed to his supporters to remain calm and refrain from actions that might destroy the country, arguing that he had a political programme in and outside Parliament to resolve alleged electoral fraud.
Violent protests involving Sata’s supporters hit Lusaka on 1 and 2 October as it emerged that Mwanawasa was headed for victory.
Sata said PF was not going to petition the election results because it was “a waste of time” as courts allegedly have no capacity to resolve political questions.
He said the PF’s main concern at the moment was the role being played by international election observers whom he accused of not having an interest in the welfare of the people.
Sata charged that the international observers were a cost to the Zambian taxpayer and a waste of time because they did not show any willingness to investigate the alleged irregularities that the parties have raised.
Most regional and international observers, including the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Election Observer Mission, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and the African Union, passed a verdict of credible, free and fair elections.
Mwanawasa’s inauguration at 12 noon on 3 October at the Parliament building in Lusaka was attended by President Hifikepunye Pohamba of Namibia, and the vice-presidents of Botswana and Zimbabwe.
A second term to successfully complete the wide-ranging economic reforms and an anti-corruption drive is what Mwanawasa had asked for from his supporters during his campaign.
He said that during his rule, the previously struggling Zambian economy had registered five percent growth and a drop in inflation from 16 percent when he assumed office in January 2002 to a single-digit level of 8.2 percent in September.
Claiming that he took over a “damaged economy” from his predecessor, Frederick Chiluba, Mwanawasa has promised to continue with his policies to deliver more Zambians out of poverty.
He argued that through his policies over the past five years, the level of poverty in Zambia has declined from 80 percent to 68 percent.
Since his first election into office in December 2001, he has pursued a prudent economic policy, making efforts to promote agricultural production and encourage foreign investment.
The policy has yielded good results, especially in the mainstay copper sector, where output is projected to rise to 700,000 tonnes by 2010. Copper production was 400,000 tonnes in 2005.
During his first term, the Zambian leader has also encouraged agricultural development through provision of subsidised inputs to farmers.
Mwanawasa’s campaign against corruption has also earned him respect among donors and international monetary institutions.
Zambia attained the completion point of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative in April 2005, enabling it to receive debt relief of an estimated US$135 million per year over the next two decades.
The HIPC initiative was launched by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to create a framework for all creditors, including multilateral creditors, to provide debt relief to the world’s heavily indebted countries, and thereby reduce the constraint on economic growth and poverty reduction imposed by the debt build-up in these countries.
The opposition has, however, dismissed Mwanawasa’s economic track record as a smokescreen to endemic poverty among Zambians.
Sata downplayed Mwanawasa’s achievements by asking journalists on polling day if “people eat inflation”.
During his campaigns, the PF leader promised to redistribute mine property, reduce income taxes and chase away foreign investors and businesspersons who exploited Zambians.
The opposition also tried to use Mwanawasa’s poor health as a campaign tool, arguing that he was not fit enough to lead Zambia for a final five-year term.
Although poverty is endemic in the country, the election results show that Zambians have shown patience and confidence that, with time, Mwanawasa’s policies will eventually benefit them.
