Democracy is faltering in Zambia
Evidence of electoral abuse by the country’s ruling party shows how successful South Africa is, by contrast
Acommon thread seems to run through the rise and fall of Zambia’s governing parties, from Kenneth Kaunda’s liberation juggernaut, the United National Independence Party (Unip), to the current Patriotic Front (PF) led by Edgar Lungu.
Having risen to the summit of political power after being elected, amid euphoric pomp and ceremony, these parties crumbled into political oblivion after being voted out.
Not only did this happen to Unip but also to its successor, the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), led successively by Frederick Chiluba, Levy Mwanawasa and finally Rupiah Banda, before Michael Sata’s PF stole the limelight in 2011.
Today, it is astonishing that neither Unip nor the MMD are anywhere near their former glory. In last week’s presidential elections, their candidates managed to garner only a handful of votes, compared with their bigger PF and United Party for National Development (UPND) rivals.
Could t h e r e b e s i mi l a r i t i e s between Zambia’s electoral trends and those unfolding in South Africa, where the governing ANC suffered a heavy setback in the recent local government elections at the hands of smaller parties?
Could it be that, as in the case of its Zambian counterparts, the ANC’s political dominance is by no means perpetually guaranteed and that, unless it reinvents itself to become more relevant to the expectations of a more discerning and better informed electorate, its trajectory down the slippery slope to oblivion has already begun?
These questions recall a discussion with South African struggle veteran Albie Sachs, in Lusaka, when he recounted some of the key moments in his career as an activist and legal practitioner.
Together, we visited the modest red brick house at plot 250 Zambezi Road in Lusaka’s Roma suburb where, many years earlier, South African struggle heroes Ray Alexander and Jack Simons had plotted the downfall of the apartheid state.
Later, we visited the nondescript building that had once housed the ANC headquarters, sandwiched between buildings in a shabby service alleyway in downtown Lusaka, where as a much younger journalist I had frequently spoken to Tom Sabina, the ANC spokesperson.
“The support given by Zambia to the ANC was absolutely vital to the progress that we were able to make,” Sachs said.
“But crucial in Zambia was the fact that we had our headquarters here, we could have our leadership here, we could develop policies here, we could develop international relationships here, and we could have contact with the South African underground, even with Robben Island, from here. For me, coming back is a political pilgrimage with very deep emotion.”
Reflecting on that discussion, I was forced to consider that, although the ANC could be on a downward spiral, the political tradition within which it was birthed so many years ago is an enduring part of South Africa’s political landscape. It has something to do with the fact that, in South Africa, the chance to vote came to mean so much to the majority of its citizens and was achieved at a heavy price in blood, sweat and tears.
Although the will of the people, expressed in genuine, periodic and credible elections, is a principle now enshrined in modern constitutions around the world, its realisation is often elusive.
Zambia holds regular democratic elections. But i n contrast with South Africa (at least so far) those in Zambia who control state institutions and resources — or organised means of bribery and intimidation — all too often try to manipulate election processes.
They do this by denying opponents the right to stand for office, blocking them from organising themselves to campaign for votes, restricting their access to the media, preventing the electorate from gaining the knowledge needed to make informed political choices, intimidating voters from making free political choices, and gerrymandering election districts to deny equal suffrage.
When these tactics appear insufficient to ensure victory, the perpetrators of fraud often seek to manipulate election day processes by blocking access to polling stations, denying qualified voters the right to cast ballots, arranging for illegal voting in their favour, stuffing ballot boxes, manipulating vote counts, rigging vote tabulations,