LETTERS - Elections

Zambia must move on
Written by C M Mulenga
Sunday, November 09, 2008 6:40:53 PM

I congratulate President Rupiah Banda for winning the recently-held presidential election and wish him well as he embarks on a very difficult job.

And may I call upon all opposition parties to accept the results and move on as the 2011 presidential and general elections are just around the corner.

But let the loss be a lesson for the opposition that as long as they remain divided, the MMD shall continue ruling even with a minority mandate. This has been said before but the leaders of these parties are all selfish, power hungry and are only driven by the quest to occupy State House.

Michael Sata, Godfrey Miyanda and Hakainde Hichilema are all seasoned and experienced politicians who would do better by being in the National Assembly representing Zambians from within Parliament. Is it that these opposition leaders cannot contest elections as members of parliament? Are they telling the voters that they can only contest as Republican presidential candidates? Does it mean that these brains will just go to waste as there can only be one president every 5 years?



http://www.postzambia.com/content/view/1189/64/

Parallels in leadership succession
Written by Justin Mupundu
Sunday, November 09, 2008 6:42:22 PM

Political analysts in Zambia have discovered that the succession of presidents to Plot One has shown a common feature. All of the four State presidents have been hand-picked.

After independence in 1964, UNIP faced a leadership crisis as it was bedevilled with tribalism. Then party leader, Kenneth Kaunda, one night stormed out of a crucial crisis meeting after announcing he had quit as the president of Zambia on what is called the Night without a President.

Top party lieutenants like Sikota Wina later persuaded KK to reverse his decision and hence the man became the ruler again after the leadership crisis.

Frederick Chiluba was called from Ndola to lead the agitation for the reintroduction of plural politics. After searching for a fitting leader, they found none who could match Chiluba’s charisma with the workers’ support. Hence out of frantic effort arose Chiluba as a leader.

It’s on record that the third president, late Dr Levy Mwanawasa, was hurriedly called to take over state presidency on the expiry of Chiluba’s term of office. Once more, another leader was born out of a leadership crisis.

Similarly, Mwanawasa brought the incumbent President, Rupiah Bwezani Banda, out the blue from his farm to become vice-president. After Mwanawasa died, the MMD’s top brass settled for Banda to solve the party’s leadership crisis.

In the final analysis, all the four became state presidents through leadership crises. Succession for our presidents will remain so for a long time to come. It’s also likely that the opposition leaders will remain in the opposition camp for the rest of their lives. Their only option of unseating the ruling MMD is to form a united front, championing a single presidential candidate with a captivating message for change.


http://www.postzambia.com/content/view/1193/64/

Munkombwe’s antics
Written by Hastings Duce Chilomo ,Kitwe
Sunday, November 09, 2008 6:43:14 PM

Whenever Daniel Munkombwe’s political wisdom is tested,
he falls below average. He seems to be overcrowded with his politics of benefits.

Manifestly clear, Munkombwe’s being unprincipled is revealed in the number of his political colours he has worn in his lifetime. ANC, UNIP, MMD, UPND, and again today, he is puting on MMD colours. His "Sata is wining" statement in The Post newspaper of 24/10/2008 clearly showed that Munkombwe was already standing with one foot in PF and another in the MMD. If Sata had won, Munkombwe would have have embraced PF. Where is his political wisdom? He went on to suggest that PF was a force to reckon with in Southern Province and yet the results showed that Heritage Party was even stronger than PF.

Your remarks hon Minister made our compaigns extremely difficult because people ended up believing that Sata had gathered mileage in the area. You watered down our confidence and morale. Thanks to Felix Mutati, Mike Mulongoti, Joseph Chilambwe and other MMD provincial leaders on the copperbelt whose encouragement was unwavering.

Upon Rupiah Banda winning, you are the first transparent person to crave for a Southern Province deputy minister position. Again you are misleading the country by claiming that chiefs and headmen compaigned for the MMD against the obvious law that chiefs are not supposed to be partisan.Why do you wish to subject our chiefs to public ridicule?

You wish to hide behind chiefs because of your failure to engage the people of southern province. You still mock them as tribalists. You are a wrong man for this position . MMD needs Southern Province in 2011. We need a 51 per cent majority . People resist you and not MMD because of your numerous political colours.

I plead with our President to dismiss Munkombwe as Southern Province minister and appoint someone else.


http://www.postzambia.com/content/view/1192/64/

KK, Chiluba leave politics
Written by Edwin Zulu
Sunday, November 09, 2008 6:44:07 PM

It is disheartening that the two statesmen, Frederick Chiluba and Kenneth Kaunda, are showing unfair way of living by being partisan and disgracing themselves. lf they want live a honorable and respectful lives they should live by example and not take sides. They must take a leaf from Nelson Mandela and play the role of advisor and fatherliness and not they way they are doing things. As long as they don't retire and live quiet lives, they will not be respected but will be found in arguments and other problems.

http://www.postzambia.com/content/view/1038/64/

2011 elections
Written by Concerned citizen
Sunday, November 09, 2008 6:46:39 PM

I feel the electoral commission should avail us with information about how many people are registered

as voters in each constituency and how many polling stations are in such constituencies at least 3 months before voting in 2011.

They should be bold to publish such information in our daily papers. This will add to transparency. ECZ should stop printing ballot papers in South Africa.

ECZ should also stop telling us that trucks break down in North Western and Western provinces because these trucks don’t break down. In 2011, they should use Rupiah’s chopper to transport ballot papers so that we do not get any excuses.


http://www.postzambia.com/content/view/1088/64/

ECZ has outlived its usefulness
Written by Christopher Mavimba
Sunday, November 09, 2008 6:47:38 PM

The just-ended elections have been a bitter pill to swallow for voters and the opposition political parties. Voters expected the opposition to win by a wide margin. The ruling party was immensely involved in electoral malpractices. However, the opposition was also to blame for not merging and offering a credible challenge to the ruling party.

If the electoral corruption is not dealt with, it will erode voters’ confidence and render the whole electoral process frivolous. To bring back voter confidence, deadwoods at the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) should be trimmed and fresh blood brought in. The fact that they have overstayed makes them think they are the only people who are capable of running elections.

This has brought complacency on their part to such an extent that they think the commission cannot do without them. If the commission is going to preserve its credibility, the entire manpower is supposed to be overhauled as it has outlived its usefulness.

Some individuals at the ECZ have become so puffed up with their positions that they cannot pay attention to what people are saying. We need commissioners who will be above reproach and of high levels of integrity. Zambians should demand the removal of some individuals from the commission because they have lost their usefulness.

Furthermore, the opposition parties are also arrogant and cannot listen to what people desire of them to do. Whose interest, I wonder, do these opposition parties serve? I expected PF and UPND to merge and offer a formidable challenge to MMD. To my surprise, they opted to go their separate ways. These parties should know that for them to remove a ruling party in government, they have to mobilise themselves and be focused.

People are tired of the same characters in power now and again.



http://www.postzambia.com/content/view/1089/64/

Uninformed rural voters
Written by Moses Siwanzi, Lusaka
Sunday, November 09, 2008 6:50:47 PM

Are we going to allow uninformed rural voters to determine our destiny and our future? If we, the people they depend on, for their survival, have seen that things are not well with the present government, what is making these people in rural areas not understand this? There is only one answer countrymen and women - the people in the rural areas are uninformed.

This is mainly due to lack of education among most rural people. Also, most of them do not even have access to news media like radio and newspapers. I’m not referring to public media like ZNBC, Times of Zambia and the Daily Mail. These are muzzled by their masters. They only print/broadcast what their masters are comfortable with.

So, if our rural brothers and sisters are only able to access government media, there is no way they are ever going to make informed decisions, especially when it comes to voting. Some of them may not even fully understand why they vote.

This reminds me of one reader who suggested that a certain level of education should determine who should be eligible to vote. I totally concur with this view. Some may argue that this may trample on some individuals' rights. But what are human rights if they are being taken advantage of by certain individuals, classes of people and organisations in society?

Can someone in the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) put forward this proposal for possible inclusion in our electoral Act so that these innocent rural souls can be saved from manipulation by the ‘know it all’ in society.