You are here: Home > Politics 1 2 3 4 5 TODAYS EDITORIAL COMMENT: It’s tight but over By Editor | Updated: 23 Jan,2015 ,21:11:42 | 5358 Views | 0 Comments [ - ] [ + ] Mail Print RSS 695 107 0 0 Although not every vote in this election has been counted and totalled, it is clear that there is no way the result is going to drastically change – it’s tight but over. The margin is definitely small, but it has given us a winner in this election. But let’s not forget where we are coming from. In 2001, Levy Mwanawasa was announced the winner of the elections with a margin of just over 20,000 votes – which later increased to 33,997. In that election, Levy, on the MMD ticket, polled 506,694 votes against UPND candidate Anderson Mazoka’s 472,697 votes. We all know the acrimony and accusations that followed that election. UPND claimed that the election was stolen from them. And this is a claim Hakainde Hichilema, the UPND presidential candidate in this election, still makes to this very day. On Wednesday, Hakainde said: “This is our election. For us, this election reminds us of the election in 2001 when our election was taken away.” And interestingly, Hakainde had in his campaign team Levy’s widow, Maureen. We wonder what Maureen’s reaction would be to charges of her late husband having become President of our Republic through a stolen election! In 2006, Levy beat Michael Sata of the Patriotic Front by 373,098 votes. In that election, Levy polled 1,177,846 votes while Michael got 804,748 votes. There were protests by Patriotic Front cadres about Levy having rigged that election. It took great effort from Michael to calm them down and stop their riotous conduct. In the 2008 presidential election that followed Levy’s death, Rupiah Banda, on the MMD ticket, beat Michael by 35,209 votes. In that election, Rupiah polled 718,359 votes while Michael got 683,150 votes. Again, there were attempts to riot, especially in Lusaka and the Copperbelt. As in 2006, Michael came out in exemplary statesmanship and stopped his cadres and supporters from engaging in riotous and destructive conduct. In 2011, Michael defeated Rupiah by 183,100 votes. In that election, Michael got 1,170,966 votes against Rupiah’s 987,866 votes. The figures we have cited above are not very different from those we have gotten in this election. Equally, the margins are not far out of the range recorded in 2001 and 2008. It will therefore not make much sense for one to reject the result of this election and resort to violence. There is nothing much out of the usual with this election. And in saying this, we are not in any way trying to preempt anyone’s rights to contest the final result of this election on any basis that is permitted by the law. If there are any grievances, the best way to deal with them is to go to the Supreme Court. Resorting to riotous behaviour is criminal and unacceptable. And those who commit crimes must without exception be ready to face the law. No one is allowed to resort to criminal behaviour for whatever reason or grievance. But one surprising thing in this country is that no one seems to accept the result of any election. Even in 1991, UNIP had difficulties accepting the result of an election they themselves had managed. There were claims of the election having been rigged in favour of the MMD and Frederick Chiluba. But no one to this day has provided any evidence to that effect. In 1996, ZADECO and Dean Mung’omba challenged the election result of that year in the Supreme Court, claiming all sorts of things. And as we have already stated above, the 2001 election was also challenged but without solid evidence of rigging. Every election in this country since 1991 has not passed without claims of rigging. Even in 2011, Rupiah and his supporters cried foul and claimed, again without evidence, that the Patriotic Front had rigged the election. This was so despite they themselves having managed that election. The question is: when are we going to have an election whose result is accepted by all – the losers and the winners – as accurate and a true reflection of the will of the voters? Having witnessed or observed the conduct of this election and having listened to many observers, we have difficulties understanding the charges of rigging. Again in saying this, we are not in any way trying to say there was no rigging and those claiming so are not entitled to make such claims. We have our doubts but we will always respect their rights to legally challenge the outcome of any election. What we will not accept is for one to resort to violence or anarchy in doing so. We know that our law is not good when it comes to the process of challenging election results, especially presidential ones. It doesn’t make sense to challenge an election when someone has already been sworn in as president. If the candidate wins by one vote, it is surely unfair not to meaningfully allow the losing candidate to seek a recount. But under our laws, the losing candidate will have to go to the Supreme Court to petition the election result. And by this time, the winner – with the one vote that is being challenged – would have been sworn in as president. There is need for those looking at our constitution to examine the possibility of delaying the swearing in until all reasonable challenges to the election have been cleared by the courts of law. This said, we take this opportunity to congratulate the winner of this election. We also congratulate the loser for his good effort and showing in this election. Without the violence from both the Patriotic Front and UPND, this would have been a wonderful election, an exemplary one. But for all that, there are still valuable lessons for all our politicians and our people to learn from this election. For the politicians, we hope they will pick the lessons on how to conduct themselves, on what can be said and done and what cannot be said and done. There are also valuable lessons on how to mobilise supporters to vote. But the greatest lesson of this election to our politicians is: don’t take the Zambian voters for granted! To the Zambian voters, the lesson is: never stay away from elections. If you do, you are likely to get a government or leader you don’t want.
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 05:49:51 +0000
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