Ex-president’s widow to run for office
LUSAKA: The widow of Zambia’s last president has joined nine other candidates seeking to replace him by running for the ruling Patriotic Front’s (PF) presidential ticket before a January election.
Christine Kaseba said she wanted to unite the party and build on the achievements of her husband Michael Sata by standing in what analysts have warned could be a divisive contest.
“The grief I feel is nothing compared to the pain that would result from the destruction of his party and abandonment of his ideals,” Kaseba, a paediatrician, said in a story published in The Post newspaper yesterday.
“I have come to the conclusion that part of the mourning of this great Zambian leader will be in completing the work he began,” she said.
Sata, who was nicknamed “King Cobra” because of his sharp tongue, died in a London hospital from an undisclosed illness last month at the age of 77. He had been president of Zambia since 2011.
The PF is divided over the contest to replace him, with supporters of front-runner Edgar Lungu saying a 53-member central committee should pick the candidate for the presidential vote, scheduled for January 20.
Other aspirants and Zambia’s interim leader Guy Scott want a vote by a general conference, made up of thousands of delegates.
Scott has called for calm and says he plans to hold a meeting with members of the central committee and all the presidential aspirants this week to agree on the selection process. Scott cannot stand because his parents were born outside Zambia, in Scotland.
Questions about Zambia’s stability arose when Scott fired Lungu as PF secretary-general on November 3. He reinstated him a day later after protests erupted. – Reuters