. From left to right Nawakwi, Banda, Hichilema, Pule and Chipimo

ZAMBIA goes to the polls on 20th January, 2015 to elect a successor to the late President Michael Sata.
The announcement of the poll date by Acting Republican President Guy Scott means the race for the presidency has started in earnest.
The United Party for National Development (UPND), Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) and United National Independence Party (UNIP) are among opposition political parties hoping to capitalise on the lengthy leadership succession facing the ruling Patriotic Front (PF).
They also hope the confusion engulfing the former ruling party, the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) which is one of the biggest political parties in the country with representation in parliamentary,
would work to their advantage.
Other opposition parties taking part in the poll are National Restoration Party (NAREP), the Heritage Party (HP), Forum for Democratic Alternatives (FDA), the Peter Sinkamba-led Green Party and the Christian Democratic Party (CDP).
The executive organs of the UPND, FDD, UNIP, FDA, NAREP, HP and CDP had no problems endorsing their party leaders to run in the election.
Naturally, the UPND has settled for party leader Hakainde Hichilema.
Hichilema has since been unveiled to the general public as UPND’s presidential candidate.
The unveiling was held at Golden Bridge Hotel in Lusaka.
The ceremony was later followed by the party’s first public rally to be held by any political party since the announcement of the poll date by Dr Scott.
Hichilema has been at the helm of the UPND since the demise of the party’s founding leader Anderson Mazoka in May, 2006.
Once considered an upstart in politics, Hichilema – fondly known by his initials HH – has in the recent past spearheaded the party in a number of parliamentary by-election victories that have earned the party more seats in Parliament.
The victories have also helped the party achieve popularity outside its Southern Province stronghold.
Hichilema replaced Mazoka after an interparty election, organised by functioning party president Sakwiba Sikota, which followed Mazoka’s demise.
In the 2006 election, Hichilema – a long standing business executive – was the presidential candidate of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA).
He ran against incumbent Republican President Levy Mwanawasa of the MMD and the late President Michael Sata who led the PF.
The election was held on September 28, 2006 and Hichilema took third place with an estimated 25 per cent of the vote.
Hichilema ran as the UPND candidate in the October 2008 presidential election that was called following the death of President Mwanawasa.
He came out 3rd with 19.7 per cent of the vote.
In June 2009, Hichilema’s UPND formed a pact with the late Michael Sata’s PF to contest the 2011 election together.
But indecision on the pact candidate, deep mistrust and accusations of tribalism from both sides resulted in the collapse of the pact in March 2011.
The PF under Michael Sata went on to contest and win the September 20 election in 2011, which ended the MMD’s 20-year reign.
Under Hichilema, the UPND has been growing in strength given its ability to win by elections outside the Southern Province which is considered to be its stronghold.
A case in point is the recent victory the party secured in the September, 2014 Solwezi Central parliamentary by-election where it scooped the seat once held by an MMD parliamentarian.
The opposition FDD is so far the only party fielding a female presidential candidate in the name of party leader Edith Nawakwi.
Her educational background in economics and business management from University of London Imperial College definitely provides the perfect
backdrop for a resume of one who became the first female minister of Finance (1998) in the whole of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.
Nawakwi assumed the FDD leadership after the late General Christon Tembo retired from active politics at a dramatic party convention in Kabwe.
She has served as FDD leader since April, 2005 after starting off as the party’s secretary general in 2001 before she assumed the vice presidency.
She held cabinet portfolios in the ministries of Agriculture, Food & Fisheries, Energy & Water Development, State for Energy & Water Development and Finance.
Although boasting of such a rich background in the public service as well as in politics, it is yet to be seen whether the country is ready for a female president.
Opposition UNIP is fielding its party leader Tilyenji Kaunda.
Though once seen as fertile ground for what some people thought would be a perpetuation of the Kaunda dynasty, the party which has been under the leadership of the son of first Republican President Kenneth
Kaunda, is shadow of the political force it once was during the Independence struggle.
UNIP has failed to make any meaningful impact on the local political scene since its unceremonial departure from power in 1991.
Opposition Heritage Party leader Godfrey Miyanda has also announced his intentions to run for the presidency.
Brigadier General Godfrey Miyanda served as Republican Vice President in Dr Frederick Chiluba’s administration.
He worked as Dr Chiluba’s minister without Portfolio and National Secretary of the MMD up until 1995.
In 1993, after the resignation of Levy Mwanawasa, General Miyanda was ascended to the Republican vice presidency until his demotion to the position of minister of Education in 1997.
General Miyanda remained the MMD vice party president until he was expelled, together with twenty two other senior party officials, in 2001, for opposing Dr Chiluba’s third presidential term bid.
From 2001 to date, General Godfrey Miyanda has served as opposition Heritage Party leader.
He has unsuccessfully run for presidency four times (2001, 2006, 2008 and 2011).
The opposition FDA is fielding its founder Ludwig Sondashi, a former minister of Works and Supply.
Dr Sondahsi is also the pioneer of the Sondashi Formula 2000 which is believed to have elements that can inhibit the spread of HIV.
Opposition NAREP is floating its leader, Elias Chipimo Jr.
Chipimo previously worked as a corporate lawyer and human rights activist.
He lived in the United Kingdom (UK), where his father, a retired politician, served as a diplomat in the late 1960s.
Chipimo, a Rhodes Scholar, graduated from Oxford with a Bachelor of Civil Law in 1990.
Before going into politics, Chipimo was managing partner and senior partner, responsible for corporate advisory work, mergers, acquisitions, investments and privatisations.
His main area of work is corporate law, principally advisory work on mergers and acquisitions, privatisation and capital markets related work in Zambia as well as within the Southern African region.
He established NAREP in 2010.
The inexperienced Green Party will be represented in the poll by its untested leader Peter Sinkamba, while Dr Danny Pule, a Dunamis Christian Centre pastor, televangelist and businessman is running on
the CDP ticket.
The former Finance deputy minister is also the founder of the local branch of the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN).
The opposition MMD and the ruling PF seem to have been caught on the wrong footing.
As their opponents fan out to woo the electorate, the two parties are rocked by over their preferred presidential candidates.
Confusion in the former ruling party, the MMD has continued as party leader Nevers Mumba tries to fight off efforts by former Republican President Rupiah Banda to lead the party to the forthcoming presidential poll.
Dr Mumba overruled a decision purported to have been made by the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) which settled on Mr Banda as the party’s preferred man for the presidential election.
On Monday, 17th November, 2014,  Mr Banda, accompanied by MMD National Secretary Muhabi Lungu, addressed journalists at the party secretariat
where he announced his readiness to contest the presidency on the MMD ticket.
But later on, an announcement by the NEC that the party had settled for Mr Banda as presidential candidate was met with a rebuttal form Dr Mumba.
Dr Mumba and Mr Banda traded conflicting statements and a number of meetings between them failed to yield a solution.
The NEC has since suspended Dr Mumba for holding his own Press conference at which he announced his candidature for the presidential poll after insisting that he was the only legitimate candidate that could represent the party in the election.
Dr Mumba later on suspended the NEC and went on to ban all activities at the party secretariat.
He described the impasse between him and Mr Banda as serious, saying “…it would take many months for the MMD to stabilise.”
A number of people were left wondering where Dr Mumba’s statement left his party given that the presidential poll takes place in a matter of weeks.
Did he mean the MMD might fail to put its house in order before 20th January, 2015 which is now less than 57 days away?
Time is equally ticking against the ruling PF which of late has been torn between going for a national conference and picking its preferred presidential candidate through its Central Committee.
In the meantime, ten candidates have filed in nomination papers to represent the party in the presidential race.
Among them is former diplomat, Captain Selemani Pangula who was last posted to the Zambian mission in Nigeria.
Finance Deputy Minister Miles Sampa was among the first to tender in his nomination papers, telling his candidates that time had come for the country to have youthful leadership.
Kabwata Parliamentarian Given Lubinda has also handed in his nomination.
Besides serving the people of Kabwata as area member of Parliament, Mr Lubinda occupied a number of Cabinet positions in the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Information and Broadcasting Services as well as
Tourism.
But some sections of society have suggested that his parentage might see him fail to qualify to contest the republican presidency.
Kasama Central Member of Parliament Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba is also hoping to run for the presidency on the PF ticket.
The Lusaka businessman told journalists that he had been instrumental in keeping the PF afloat in past years and that he wanted to run for the presidency because he had a heart for the country.
Lusaka Mayor Mulenga Sata is also hoping to represent the PF at the poll.
Fresh from burying his father, Mulenga unveiled his presidential ambitions, bringing the number of PF applicants by Tuesday, 18th November to five.
Later on, more candidates expressed interest in leading the PF in the presidential poll, among them Commerce Trade and Industry Minister Bob
Sichinga, Defense Minister Edgar Lungu – who is also the Justice Minister, Youth and Sports Minister Chishimba Kambwili, Agriculture and Livestock Minister Wilbur Simusa and former First Lady Dr Christine Kaseba.
Filing in her nomination, Dr Kaseba said the nation was fully aware that that she was still morning her husband.
But she felt her grief would be nothing compared to the pain that would result from the destruction of the PF or the abandonment of Mr Sata’s ideals.
“As difficult as it is for me to mourn my husband, I have come to the conclusion that part of the true mourning of this great Zambian leader will be in completing the work he begun,” she said.
Dr Kaseba has been supported by some sections of society that believe she has a democratic right to express her political ambitions in the republican presidency.
The Non-Governmental Coordinating Committee (NGOCC) has since pledged to support all female candidates participating in the January 20 presidential election.
If chosen by endorsed by the PF, Dr Kaseba would be the second female candidate to run in the presidential election besides FDD leader Edith Nawakwi.
A number of PF presidential hopefuls have chorused calls for PF to choose its presidential candidate through the general conference as suggested by Dr Scott.
But up to 70 PF members of Parliament, among them members of the Central Committee and cabinet ministers, want the Central Committee to pick the presidential candidate.
Those calling for the Central Committee to pick the presidential candidate have suggested that the PF goes for its Party Secretary General Edgar Lungu in interest of unity, time as well as money which
the party seems not to have.
They feel Mr Lungu he is a well-known factor who easily identifies with the electorate.
They warn that picking a presidential candidate who lacks the credentials and support of the electorate may see the PF losing the election to the opposition which is already on the campaign trail.
They contend that a general conference may just leave the party more fragmented than ever and could be the beginning of the end for the PF.
But their opponents argue that the party still had time to choose a presidential candidate through a democratic process embodied in the general conference.
Dr Scott is on record as having said if the PF had no money to host the general conference, then it should not be in leadership.
Some sections of society believe the PF could have avoided the lengthy succession procedure had it enacted the new Republican Constitution
which provides for the president to have a vice president as a running mate who could take over the presidency in the event of a presidential vacancy.