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Five presidents in 20 years: Five important lessons from Zambia's elections
Arkmore Kori
October 03, 2011

Zambia is an emerging democracy. It conducted free and fair tripartite elections on 20 September 2011. There are a number of lessons that can be learnt by all the countries that are committed to democracy.

1. Citizens' Vigilance

The isolated pockets of violence that broke out in Ndola, Kitwe and parts of Lusaka demanding the release of 20 September 2011 tripartite election results within the constitutionally stipulated time of forty-eight hours showed the alertness of Zambians in safeguarding their democracy. Whilst violence is bad because protesters end up destroying infrastructure, limps and even lives needed to celebrate and sustain the democracy they would have fought for, protests in Zambia-s recent elections put irresistible pressure on the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) to announce results on time. It is becoming common in Southern Africa to first announce almost all the election results from the strongholds of opposition political parties. This is usually followed by a suspicious delay or a 'moment of silence- in announcing the results from the areas dominated by the ruling party.

In 2008 presidential elections, Mr. Michael Sata-s Patriotic Front (PF) maintained a lead for a long time, until it was suddenly announced that Mr. Rupia Banda-s Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) had won by a small margin of around 35 000 votes. PF supporters believed the 'moment of silence- was used to rig the elections. Consequently, PF supporters wanted to protest against the 2008 presidential results, but they were restrained by their leaders. The lesson learnt in 2008 by Mr. Sata and his supporters at large was that despite the presence of election observers and monitors from within and outside, Zambians themselves have the responsibility of protecting their votes and safeguard against election rigging. In 2011 elections, Zambians closely monitored the movement of ballots and ballot boxes. A number of vehicles, especially those that delivered ballot boxes after the official time of polling began at 0600hrs on the 20th of September were attacked for 'attempting- to 'steal elections-. Groups of voters could also be seen as late as 12 midnight, peeping through the windows of polling stations to monitor the counting process.

But what largely forced ZEC to speed up the process of announcing presidential elections was the origin of the protest. Ndola is a PF stronghold where the 1991 revolution led by Mr. Fredrick 'Kapfupi- Chiluba began when the revolutionaries burnt the national flag and replaced it with an empty bag of mealie meal. The looting and rioting for speedy announcement of presidential elections that occurred in the afternoon of the 22nd of September 2011 was a reliable symptom Ndola might start an equivalent of 1991. What made the rioters more energetic and upset was that they had 'carried forward- their 2008 antagonism and found it very hard to entertain a similar situation in 2011. It is unfortunate Zambians could not use peaceful means to show their grievance, but the Zambians were the masters of their own new political dispensation they created through steadfast alertness against election rigging.

2. Transparent Voter's Roll and Joint Verification of Voters

The high level of transparency was exhibited by Zambia-s voters roll and the country-s decision to allow representatives of contesting political parties to be part of voters verification exercise at each polling station. Each Zambian voter has a voters- card with voters- number and voters- recent photograph. The voters- number, the national registration number and the recent photograph of the voter are inserted in the voters roll. Each polling station has its voters roll consisting of all the people around the area registered as voters. All the political parties contesting in the elections are given copies of the voters roll for each polling station and the opportunity to verify each voter together with the polling officers.

When a voter comes to cast a vote, the polling officer would shout the name of the voter, the voters- number and the national registration number. The polling officer would also shout the page number of the voters roll where the voters- details are found. Political parties, election monitors and observers would cross check the voters details in their copies of the voters roll to determine whether the person is a registered voter of which he or she would be allowed to cast or not to cast a vote. The process was slow, but ensured no dead person would cast a vote.

3. Accommodative Electronic State Media

By African standards, Zambia-s electronic state media was relatively accommodative. Mr. Rupia Banda was offered most of the time where he could chide his political rivals, but never threatened his political opponents or the electorate. Instead, he encouraged Zambians to be peaceful throughout the election period. Television programme such as Kwacha Good Morning or Towards the State House offered all political parties opportunities to share their manifestos. What was more fascinating was the complete lack of selfish revolutionary songs on state radio and television that could have given Mr. Banda unfair advantage and intimidated the electorate. However, most of the songs that were repeated encouraged Zambians to be peaceful before, during and after elections. Besides, political parties that wanted more time on air approached private media. It is phenomenal Zambia, only twenty years after independence, has liberated its airwaves to promote freedom of expression.

4. Value of Leadership Renewal

Zambia-s elections also offered some teachings to politicians. The 20 September election showed that leaders who cling to power and fail to groom successors on time are likely to affect the future of their political parties when their known faces are no longer there. When a political leader overstays, there is a tendency of the electorate to vote for the leader than the political party. From 1964 to 1991, most Zambians became more used to Dr. Kenneth Kaunda as an individual than the United National Independence Party (UNIP) he led. I could not believe that a revolutionary party like UNIP could get zero presidential votes in most polling stations. 'Zambians cannot vote for UNIP because Dr. Kaunda-s face is not there-, said a Zambian colleague. Similar applies to MMD. Mr. Rupia Banda was invited from his farm in 2008 only to finish off Mr. Mwanawasa-s presidential term. Very few expected Mr. Banda to stand as MMD leader in 2011. However, MMD forgot to popularise and groom a new face in more than three years of Mr. Banda-s rule and were forced to put Mr. Banda as their 2011 candidate largely because no one within the party was known by the electorate. The loss of MMD to PF could be partly attributed to this factor because Mr. Banda was not admired by many, especially the majority of urban population and significant pockets of the rural dwellers. South Africa-s ANC has survived not only because South Africans respect Mr. Mandela as the benevolent founding father, but also because it has been able to periodically renew its leadership.

5. Value of Voter Education

There was clear lack of voter education especially in rural polling stations shown by some voters who asked polling officers what to do with the ballots and where to place them. At Kabwata, Lumano, Chamunda and other polling stations in rural Ndola, for example, polling officers spend some of their time explaining to some voters how to cast their votes. Other voters ignorantly displayed their marked ballots to observers, monitors and representatives of political parties and polling officers had to quickly remind them to fold and place them in the correct boxes. Displaying political choices can be risky to voters, especially in countries where there is no freedom after choice.

It was also clear that lack of voter education worked against political parties that are usually against it. Voter education reduces the number of spoiled ballots and therefore increases the number of votes for political parties. Lack of voter education for rural communities for example, reduces the number of votes for political parties that are popular in rural areas. Similarly, lack of voter education in urban areas affects political parties that are popular in urban areas. In most of the cases in Zambia where ballots were spoilt, a voter would have put more than one mark on the ballot. Whilst one of the marks would be a clear X against a choice, the other mark would be a visible dot or a skewed line, suggesting that the voter might have placed the pen inconsiderately on the ballot whilst making or identifying a choice. No one had taught them prior to the voting process that if you make a mistake, you can be given another ballot to make a correct choice. Some put their X at the back of the ballot; some placed their signatures against their choices; others marked political party insignia whilst few casted blank ballots. With an average of forty spoilt ballots at every polling station, lack of voter education in Zambia worked against some of the contesting political parties.

*Arkmore Kori is a Zimbabwean who was an Election Monitor for Zambia-s 20 September tripartite elections.

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