The full list of parliamentary candidates who successfully lodged their nominations for the August 11, 2016 general election – as published this week by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) – is quite revealing in many respects.
Firstly, it shows that probably for the first time ever, the nation is going to have the highest number of candidates running as independents – 108 of them, according to my computation.
Secondly – and probably most shockingly – the list shows that two former ruling parties – the United National Independence Party (UNIP 1964-1991) and the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD 1991-2011) – have lost the popularity that they used to enjoy in the country that they are now unrepresented even in areas that were previously regarded as their strongholds.
Thirdly, the list also reveals that while Nigerian prophet Joshua Iginla predicted a presidential battle of ‘Two Big Lions’ during his recent whirlwind visit to Zambia, this year’s elections will also witness a spirited ‘tug of war’ of ‘lionesses’ for the Lusaka Central Constituency seat that has been vacated by former acting republican vice-president, Guy Scott.
The two lionesses are clearly Dr Scott’s wife, Charlotte Scott, who has ‘crossed the floor’ and is running on the opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) ticket; and Commerce and Industry Minister, Margaret Mwanakatwe of the governing Patriotic Front (PF).
Others bidding for the Lusaka Central ‘hot seat’ are Dorothy Mumba of the Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) and Mwenda Kasonde, an independent.
Fourthly, the ECZ list reveals that though recently formed – by former Patriotic Front (PF) secretary general, Wynter Kabimba – the Rainbow Party (RP) could be a growing force that should not be taken for granted because it has been able to field its candidates even in the most unlikely places across the country.
The Rainbow Party is represented in the Copperbelt, Northern, North Western and Southern provinces where UNIP seems to have completely disappeared from the radar.
When did Kabimba and his team start preparing for this year’s general election? is the question most keen watchers of the Zambian political scene would be inclined to ask.
How Kabimba, a man previously regarded as one of the late PF founder and fifth Republican President Michael Sata’s closest colleagues (and possible heir apparent), has been able to achieve such a feat in such a short space of time, can be said to be nothing short of a miracle, especially when one looks at the logistical problems, the amount of resources (both financial and personnel, etc) involved in nationwide mobilisation.
Other fringe parties, including the once ‘mighty’ UNIP and MMD, have failed where the newly formed RP has succeeded. Its leader must be a genius of some sort.
Believe it or not in its hey day, UNIP used to be so popular particularly on the Copperbelt, in Luapula and Northern provinces that people in those areas could do anything for the party because they adored and revered its leaders who were fighting to free them from colonial bondage and racism.
I recall one event in 1962 when we, as UNIP youths from Mufulira, had to walk (because of inadequate transport) all the way from the Kantanshi UNIP constituency offices, which was situated in the second class industrial area, near the inter-town bus stop to Kitwe’s OB Bennett Speedway where ‘Kenneth Kaunda’ was to address a mammoth rally upon his return from New York where he had addressed the United Nations General Assembly.
We were told that Kaunda had broken down and ‘wept’ at the UN over the suffering of Africans and the people of the Gwembe Valley in particular had been subjected to during and after the construction of the Kariba Dam between 1958 and 1960.
As ‘enthusiastic and vibrant’ primary school pupils’ (who were not even aware of the distance involved but inspired by legendary stories of an Athenian lad who ran from the Greek capital Athens to Sparta, Greece’s second city then), we set off for Kitwe at 6am, running behind the only Bedford lorry that constituency leaders like a Mr Mulabaka and Mr Hankie Kalanga, who had arrived from East Africa, could afford to hire for the unscheduled marathon to the Eureka OB Bennett Speedway, the venue of the mammoth UNIP rally.
Most of us did not even know that the venue was not exactly inside Kitwe, but was located across the Kafue River Bridge and directly opposite the present Zam-Tan Deport on the Kitwe-Ndola Dual carriageway. Crazy, one might say, but it was also great fun and a sign of commitment to a worthy cause – the struggle for self-government.
Singing ‘Icikoti cha kwa Kaunda caba ichapambana Welensky achimona umutima waya’ – meaning: Kaunda’s whip stings so much that Sir Welensky’s (the Federal prime minister) heart stops beating at the prospect of being lashed with it.
Dancing, waving tree branches and palm trees, and yelling at every passing motorists, especially if it happened to be the ‘common enemy’, we marched on non-stop – but with comrades developing blisters taking turns to jump on board the moving truck for a ‘breather’. We finally arrived at the rally where singer Tolomeo Bwalya was entertaining the huge crowd with the popular song based on the ‘Hare-tortoise’ fable at around 4:30 pm and when the meeting was about to end.
I still remember the fact that we were so tired after such a long walk that all of us fell asleep on the thorny bushes that had been trampled upon by the multitudes of party supporters who had trekked to the OB Bennett Speedway venue from all over the Copperbelt – all determined to welcome their hero and hear the ‘UN story’ from the horse’s mouth.
Unfortunately, the UNIP leader was said to have been held up on the way back to Africa from the United States of America (US) and so he could not make it in time to address his people. The meeting, however, ended peacefully – and as there were many newly bought UNIP-marked Land-Rovers we did not have to walk back to Mufulira.
This is not fiction but a true story – an example which serves to show just how popular UNIP used to be not only on the Copperbelt but also in Luapula and Northern provinces where its candidates routinely marched to Parliament in Lusaka unopposed at every successive general election.
The same applied to its hundreds of councillors and ward leaders who stood under its banner.
To some degree, it was a trend that was to be replicated decades later only by the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) immediately after the watershed 1991 all-party elections.
MMD, too, was so popular on the Copperbelt that most UNIP cadres, or party militants as they were known, could not believe what their eyes could see nor their ears could hear.
Young Frederick Titus Jacob (FTJ) Chiluba and his Zambia Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) had arrived on the political stage and snatched the initiative from the once iconic ‘KK’ – the independence hero.
What transpired thereafter is beyond the scope of this essay but suffice to say that UNIP’s inexorable decline never looked in doubt to many.  Yet MMD suffered similar fate a few years later, as the ECZ’s statistics for the August 11, 2016 general election show.
While MMD is fielding only two, Webby Chipili (Kamfinsa) and Annie Munshya (Lufwanyama), UNIP has found not a single person willing enough to stand on its ticket. This is in sharp contrast with Kabimba’s Rainbow Party, which has fielded a record 13 candidates on the Copperbelt.
As for the independents, Eastern Province (where MMD appears still strong) and Luapula Province top the list with 18 aspirants each followed by the Copperbelt with 16. Western Province, where UNIP has thrown in at least three, and Southern Province (where UNIP has zero) and Northern Province (where UNIP also has none) follow with 10 and nine (9) independents each, respectively.
Other independents are in Central Province (7), Lusaka Province (7), Muchinga Province (8), and North Western Province (6).
From the foregoing, one is forced to come to the conclusion that the performance of the ‘middle-roaders’ and the various smaller fringe parties might prove to be the ‘king-makers’ for the three major parties – the ruling PF, the opposition UPND and FDD.
Therefore, alliances and ‘marriages of convenience’ may in the final analysis become the rule than the exception come August 11, 2016 elections.
By the way, the ECZ must be commended for mounting a campaign through the SMS’s it has been sending to sensitise eligible Zambians – that is anyone 18 years-old and above and who has a National Registration Card (NCR) about the need to participate in the National Referendum on the Bill of Rights to run concurrently with the general election.
The message, which is translated into many vernacular languages, says: ‘A referendum will be held on 11/08/2016. In the referendum, you will vote to add new social, economic and political rights into the Constitution or not’.
Yes everyone must get on board and make this year’s general election a huge success.
Comments: alfredmulenga777@gmail.com