THURSDAY’S by-elections in which Zambia’s leading political parties jostled for parliamentary seats could be summarised in just a few words – a battle of mixed fortunes.
Seven political parties took part either in all or some of the five by-elections, which fell vacant after the Supreme Court nullified election results of the previous seat holders on account of electoral malpractices.
These are the ruling Patriotic Front (PF), former ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), United Party for National Development (UPND) and another former ruling party, the United National Independence Party (UNIP).
Others are the National Restoration Party, Forum for Democracy and Development and the Green Party, which is the newest party on the block.
Of course numbers of participating parties did not matter much because even when the campaigns for the by-elections were closed 48 hours before polling day, all eyes were focused only on three biggest political parties, namely, the PF, MMD and UPND.
This meant that even though the other four parties put in all they had at their disposal, in terms of human, material and financial resources, battle lines were effectively drawn among the PF, MMD and UPND.
It appeared even among the electorate, these three parties mattered most because these were the only ones that were known to have been holding campaign rallies or, to put it simply, these were the only parties that could be heard the loudest.
Wherever there were skirmishes, physical or verbal, these involved supporters of these three political parties.
Fortunately, Thursday’s by-elections could be described as being largely peaceful, the first time we have had such an enabling atmosphere. Even Police Inspector-General Stella Libongani has confirmed that the by-elections were incident-free.
Thursday’s by-elections are now history and all parties are now only counting their eggs. Again only three biggest political parties emerged from these polls with something in their baskets.
It is true to mention, foremost, that perhaps the biggest winner was the ruling PF which went into the by-election attempting to win seats that were previously not its own.
Of the five seats, four were previously held by MMD members of Parliament while one, Zambezi West, belonged to the UPND.
At the end of the day, the PF grabbed two seats from the MMD (Vubwi and Mkushi South) and one from the UPND (Zambezi West). The UPND, meanwhile, wrestled one seat, Solwezi Central, from the MMD, leaving the former ruling with just one parliamentary seat, Kasenengwa, which it retained.
For the UPND to win one seat and lose one is just as good as not adding anything to its MPs’ tally in the House, meaning it is back to square one.
As for the MMD, the party should certainly get back to the drawing board because it emerged from the by-election the biggest loser, and all this barely one month after losing yet another seat, Mangango, to the ruling party.
And we urge the four other political parties that did not win a single seat never to give up but to continue fighting because participating in elections is partly what democracy entails.
They should emulate the spirit of UNIP which, even after always emerging tail-enders in many (by-)elections has continued to exercise its democratic right by participating in nearly all the polls that have so far taken place since it was removed from power more than two decades ago.
In the end, it is not any single party, but Zambia’s democracy which is the overall winner.