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Mwanawasa wins presidency | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Levy Mwanawasa has been elected for a second term in office in an election that foreign observers have declared largely fair and transparent. Opposition leader, Michael Sata of the Patriotic Front has acknowledged the victory but maintains that election was fraudulent with thousands of votes uncounted. He called on his supporters to remain calm after two days of rioting in Lusaka and Kitwe, in Copperbelt province, both areas with strong PF support. Our reporter in Lusaka, Musonda Chibamba spoke to Focus on Africa and described how the results were announced: Friday 29th September The team is at the count in Lusaka waiting for the declaration of results. Maureen asked returning officer Peter Kashiwa about the delay in Lusaka: Thursday 28th September Today the polls opened at day-break and early indications are that the turnout is going to be very high following an exciting campaign period. We have reports from around the country: David Amanor asks David Chanda, a journalist with Radio Mano, where he is watching the polling? David Amanor asks Francis Phiri, a journalist with Breeze FM in Chipata, Eastern Province about the turn out there: and Maureen is in the capital, Lusaka:
Today is no different, we have been following the last gasp calls to voters and hearing what people want and how they intend to vote Maureen chairs a debate between Dr Guy Scott of the Patriotic Front and Mrs Rose Zimba of the governing Movement for Multiparty Democracy. They are both standing for a parliamentary seat representing Lusaka central.
On Focus on Africa 1500 edition:
Internet diary For the duration of our stay Maureen and I will be keeping an internet diary on this website, logging the places that we visit and events that may not make it on to the programmes - we hope you enjoy it.
Friday 22nd September After a hectic trip to the Copper Belt towns of Kitwe and Ndola, I returned to the capital for the weekend. I grabbed a quick shower after the long car journey and headed out with my friend to the local pub. People of all political allegiances had gathered to watch the "Interview of the Day" on the big screen. It is a 90 minute interview session with the aspiring presidential candidates, they are asked what they hope to bring to the seat of government if elected to the top post on the 28th September. Tonight it was the turn of the Levy Mwanawasa, the incumbent president. He talked on about his background and achievements while people in the bar heckled the screen. Some were quite rude; "What's he telling us? That's all lies" while others cheered him on calling him a man of integrity. The place really erupted when he told his interviewer that he was clearly "alone in the race", after being asked to rate his opposition. Some people guffawed with disbelieving laughter while others cheered and whooped in agreement. Calls for a debate Even with the lighter moments, 90 minutes is a long time to watch one man waffle on about himself and a table of women nearby were getting a little impatient with it. "They should have just had a presidential debate with all the candidates". Argued one of them. "Oh noooo - he needs more make-up on his face" came the tangential response of one of her companions, who had clearly taken a lot to drink. A man in the vicinity stayed with the first lady's point but he disagreed on the grounds that Levy Mwanawasa allegedly has a very short temper that wouldn't hold out for the duration of a 90 minute debate! The whole group burst into laughter. I asked about the less known candidate, Kenny Ngondo of the APC. "Ah - He's not campaigning much, although his party is fielding 33 parliamentary candidates," one man with a large glass of beer explained, "and he says he'll surprise us all by winning the election." People nearby all chuckled. A mobile phone rang and was answered by its owner: "Don't disturb me, I'm busy with the BBC!" The man later thanked me for giving him an excuse to be late home. I felt a bit bad, but at least I got some good reaction for my radio feature! Thursday 21st September I'm in the Copper Belt province today to guage peoples' views; it's a strategic and significant region for the forthcoming polls. The densely populated Copper Belt, once the hub of Zambia's economic mainstay, the copper industry, is a collection of several important mining towns. It also has the highest number of parliamentary constituencies - 22 in total compared to only 13 in the capital, Lusaka. Getting to Kitwe was not straightforward, our car was stopped at a police roadblock because we didn't have any stick-on high visibility flashes. "Well what will we do?" I asked the driver. "We can't go unless we pay the police, otherwise they will impound the car" was his response. We had no choice but to pay. Zambian time In Kitwe, our scheduled radio discussion was delayed by the late arrival of our interviewees. One thing I've learnt over the last couple of days, covering the election process in this country is that people never show up on time, and when they do, they never apologise. It's what they call Zambian time. Eventually, we were able to record the debate which turned out to be very heated, at one point I thought they might come to blows as they disuted what had and hadn't been done by the incumbent administration! With the discussion in the bag, I set off for the centre of town to get a sample of views from the street. I was in for quite a surprise. Arriving at the central bus station, I climbed out of the car and got out my recording equipment. On sight of my microphone a group of youths started to heckle me and shout for me to "Get lost", they didn't want to speak to me... "What do you want here you silly reporter, we don't want to talk to you, go before we stone your car"... I didn't need to be told twice, I jumped back in the car and left, heading for a quieter part of town to gather some opinion. This has not been a good day. The opposition party of Michael Sata dominates in this area. Why? I asked the people I was interviewing. In this region people believe that Mr Sata has the experience for the job from his previous government roles, and he is generally seen as a man who can get things done. We'll see. Wednesday 20th September Mongu is the main city in the Western Province of Zambia and about six and a half hours drive from the capital, Lusaka. We want to get a taste of how people are preparing for the election in the more remote parts of the country so at seven o'clock sharp our driver arrived to collect Damian and I. Not being a morning person, it was a bit of a struggle and I slept for most of the journey. I only woke up to use the toilet but as you can imagine we were driving through the bush and there were no public lavatories. "The bush will do..." I told the driver "...as long as you don't peep!" Kafue national park We travelled through the Kafue national park which is one of Zambia's chief tourist attractions. It was a delight to see herds of antelope, gazelle and even elephant as we drove along. It all seemed so unreal as I had not seen so many wild animals in one place in my life before! The most fascinating was when we stopped to buy a newspaper at the roadside; other stalls also had goodies such as fruit and snacks for sale. What a commotion! There were people shouting and throwing stones and, to my amazement, I saw a group of monkeys helping themselves to bananas and fruits from the roadside stalls. It was quite hilarious as the villagers chased the monkeys away from their goods... I wonder if they had money to pay for them. In Mongu, the marks of election fever were all over the town centre; everywhere was adorned with campaign posters. Some opposition supporters were dancing and singing, preparing a welcome for a visit from their leader. At the market I went to the main market to talk to the traders and shoppers about issues that they want address. The conditions were deplorable. The market houses about 900 traders but only has two sets of toilets. Marketeers complained about the lack of running water, poor sanitation and drainage and the inadequate and dilapidated conditions in which they had to work. Fish is the main source on income in Mongu as it lies on the Zambezi, tha largest river in Zambia from where they catch fish, sell fish and eat fish every day of their lives. "Never get fed up", one trader told me. The conditions in which the fish is sold at the market is terrible. The stalls are old and dirty and the fish are swamped with flies to such and extent that you can hardly see the fish beneath them. "We want a leader who can look into issues here at the market", one trader told me... "We need a leader who can change conditions and can expand the market and make it possible to sell our good in proper hygienic conditions." But they all kept mum about who they were going to vote for. That evening I relaxed with a plate of nshima (the local staple food ) and fresh fish; as the food was put before me and I said Grace, I also prayed that it was not the same fly-infested fish that I had seen at the market. Monday 18th September It was a cold summer morning and I could see the sun rising on the horizon through the aeroplane window. It was the end of my ten hour journey from London and the beginning of my stay in my home country, Zambia. I was excited about this trip home mainly because my brief is to cover these elections. However, my first impressions when going around Lusaka were that campaigning had not yet reached fever pitch, people seem quite laidback and all I could see were a few campaign posters, hurriedly put up around the city. Appointment I had an appointment to see the former President of Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda. We got there on time but he was running a little late, his cousin told us - he bears a striking resemblance. When Dr Kaunda showed up we exchanged greetings, he seemed very happy to see me again, the last time we met I was a TV journalist with South African television and that was over ten years ago.
We talked about his political stand and how he sees the elections shaping up... he didn't mince his words. At the end of our chat the former leader treated us to one of his favourite songs; one of his trademarks because Dr Kaunda was once a musician - not a professional musician - but someone who always sung during his campaign for Zambian independence. Going home By the end of our first day my colleague, Damian and I were quite tired but before I called it a day I thought it a good idea to pay homage to my family. I popped in to say hello to my Dad unexpectedly and we both sat and talked politics! He told me that he thought President Mwanawasa and his MMD party would be re-elected because, according to him, there was no real leadership contest and his party were better organised at campaigning for these elections. "Well" I said to him "as the cliché goes - let's wait and see" Day two After some sleep I woke on my second day in Lusaka and headed out to meet people and get some views on the candidates and their campaigns. One thing that I noticed is that the political parties do not have widely varying manifestos, all of them seem to be campaigning about the same issues - making life better, fighting poverty and corruption - the usual stuff. We have travelled now to Mongu in the Western Province, it is on the famous Zambezi river and so fishing is the major employer of the townspeople. Here again the issues facing people are much the same. We visited a market to get the feelings of traders there, the poor infrastructure was a recurrent complaint and one that they really want the politicians to address. |
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Speaking from experience
