Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy

The President had passed away in August and in keeping with the constitution presidential elections were called within 90 days of his death. The sitting parliament remains in session. The presidential race, as expected became a battle between two old rivals: Vice president Rupiah Banda (72) of the government party Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) and Michael Sata (72) from the opposition party Patriotic Front (PF). The count made known after three days: Banda took 40% and Sata 38% of the votes.

Elections in Zambia

Despite the small margin between the candidates the mood remained calm in Zambia. "An example for the region" is how members of the SADC observer mission described the elections. They are the fifth elections since the introduction of democracy in 1991. The first two elections (in 1991 and 1996) were landslides for the MMD who swept into office signifying an end to a one party authoritarian regime in Zambia. After the 2001 and 2006 elections however, the opposition parties, UPND and PF had gained widespread support. This has allowed for much more balance in the Zambian party system over the last decade.

A second observable trend concerned the fracturing of regional support for parties. Regional parties exist still, UPND being a good example, but in the 2006 elections, PF appeared to have built a following amongst city people in different provinces. The rural urban divide has always been a dividing line influencing outcomes of Zambian elections. This election was no different. The countryside voted massively for Banda (MMD subsidize artificial fertilizer and increased the subsidy significantly in the run up to the elections). The most important cities, meanwhile, are carried by Sata, who appeals to voter feeling of frustration over the management of the country's considerable economic growth.

A third trend relates to a larger general theme in African development: the quality of the democracy and in the individual freedoms that exist, especially where a country, as in Zambia, goes through a series of major elections.
A last remark must go to the elections trial: electoral institutions come under a lot of fire in many African countries. on the one hand because the often cannot operate completely independently (with Ghana being a notable exception) and on the other hand because losers of Africa's winner-take-all elections rarely are prepared to recognize their loss. In Zambia the capacity and strength of of the electoral commission has improved considerably and is evidenced not least in the smooth, transparent handling of the presidential election.

NIMD and ZCID

The Zambian Centre for Inter-Party Dialogue (ZCID) is set up with support of the NIMD and the secretary-generals of the Zambian parliamentary parties. All non-parliamentary parties have one joint representative on the platform also. From 2003 NIMD facilitated informal dialogue between the parties. Slowly as mutual trust was built up the cooperation became increasingly structured. A long term strategy was written by the parties, with support of NIMD, in which their priorities for strengthening of the Zambian democracy were set out. As ZCID developed a full-scale programme it appointed a staff, a chair, a manger, a program officer and a financial manager.

In June 2007 the ZCID centre was launched by the leaders of all the political parties, with President Mwanawasa and a NIMD delegation also present. ZCID operates at a highly sensitive political level.

The most important lessons to be learned from the elections according to ZCID are:

• The fact that the results were announced without incident speaks to the increased transparency of the Zambian electoral system. The parallel tele-system of a local NGO further strengthened the legitimacy of the outcome. This was of crucial significance considering the small margin in the result.

• The opposition parties were at a disadvantage because of loopholes in campaign financing laws. This underlies the need for an urgent reform of the laws around party financing.

• The electoral commission has worked professionally and transparently. The fact, that polling clerks have been trained for example has tangibly improved the quality of the election.

• The electoral system needs further reform: the winner take all principle greatly increases the chances of electoral dispute or even violence.

• Broader public awareness of the electoral system and process needs to be raised to prevent voter apathy and the electoral council must continue to support voter registration initiatives. There is now in Zambia a vast amount of young people who are not registered to vote. This needs to be addressed - an honest elections begins with a broad base of registered voters.

Many of these points will be addressed in the NIMD-ZCID year plan 2009.

Future is Positive

Democracy is still getting onto its feet in Africa. In the sixties and seventies it was almost a collapsed concept entirely with 3/4 African leaders coming to power through coups, violence and assassinations. Between 2000 and 2005 that figure has dropped by 19%.

Also recent statistics from Freedom House show that over time democratic tendencies tend to reproduce themselves. We can only wait then to see if this will be true of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Yet, for now, the success of Zambia's electoral system is a very good sign indeed.