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17 aspirants interested in the Zambian republican presidency! This is a record highest number of people vying for the presidency in the history of Zambia’s democratic dispensation.
Believe it or not, 17 political party presidents are making themselves available for the electorate come 20th September 2011, at least going by what the Electoral Commission of Zambia -ECZ.
However, despite this huge record number in presidential aspirants, very few of them can lay claim to legitimate political party backing.
The registrar of societies has recently stated that 26 of the 34 political parties in existence are on the verge of deregistration due to failure to make returns.
But that is the beauty of democracy, anyone, regardless of their political party backing can vie for the presidency, of course with all the right qualifications as enshrined in the constitution, not forgetting that they need to have both of their parents truly Zambians and not by implication.
And interesting enough, among those who appeared at the recent ECZ calling for presidential aspirants were those, who have publicly declared their support for the ruling party, MMD candidate, wonder what they went there for.
Another fascinating fact is the so called defection of Ben Mwila from his party to rejoin the MMD on claims that the ruling party has been well managed.
What sort of nonsense is this, is it a defection or just a mere abandoning of his party and what a reason to cite, so is right to leave your disorganised home for your neighbour’s, instead of just sorting out the mess in yours.
What is the point of supporting, publicly for that matter, another party’s candidate, leaving behind your own candidature’ and for some, let alone be adopted as a parliamentary candidate for another party, and to make matters worse only to show at an ECZ meeting called for presidential aspirants.
I should call this, something nearer to a democratic joke.
And what is this about whose parents are Zambians? Since when did we ever have realize that our next door neighbor is actually a foreigner? Is it when they suddenly woke up and became a public office aspirant? And why involve the regional bodies like SADC, African Union and even the United Nations, are thye not also moribund group[s of people, with their own tilted agenda? Lets stop this and focus on what these who claim to have potential to lead us will do for us, and not for cosmetic purposes as seen in the robust development projects.
But, anyway, enough of this broad analysis, lets get down to focus on the various political parties, which claim to have potential public leaders to be among those for consideration come 20th September when casting ballots.
UNIP
The writing is there on the wall for everyone to see that the former ruling party is indeed former and almost extinct. What remains is for the party is to formally dissolve and what a bitter pill, this would be.
The party’s demise is very evident in that the party’s former members of parliamentary have gracefully crossed over to join their colleague, President Rupiah Banda in the MMD.
Now in this next election, we do not know what number of life is left in UNIP or whether it will be the last 9th life, that is, if there is anything to believe about the many lives of a cat.
HERITAGE PARTY
The General is among the most, on record best vice president to have served this country.
With him, came discipline, honesty, honour, seriousness and unrivaled esteem as well as integrity to the office of the Vice President for the first and last time in the current democratic dispensation.
However, General Miyanda has contributed to setting his party on the path to demise through inevitable and not so good hibernation.
Since its formation, the Heritage party has suffered a downward trend journey, starting with asll its then members of parliament having agreed to the dangled MMD sweet carrots, consequently crossing over to the ruling and further to their demise.
Who remembers Reverend Gladys Nyirongo and her colleagues, whatever happened to them?
General Miyanda’s political strategy has surely not worked out going by his recent call for grand political coalitions, which in Zambia have a bad history.
Before every general elections, the General has ever contested in, he always talks sense and the truth as regards the serious consequences of political diversity, in contributing towards creating a one-party dominance multi-party democracy as currently obtaining in Zambia.
However, his solo challenge for the republican presidency is no story worth to talk about, therefore the same case can be foreseen in the forthcoming 2011 general elections.
FDD
The story of the Forum for Democracy and Development is a combination and summary of the tales of UNIP and most of the Heritage party’s story.
The party has suffered a similar fate as for the heritage party, with what is worse as in the private defection of its Vice President, Chifumu Banda and the very public shift of camp of its former Sinda member of parliament, Levy Ngoma, who has chosen to go the Ex-UNIP way, all-coloured in MMD regalia.
President Edith Nawakwi is another version of General Miyanda, a politician, who goes into hibernation to only re-surface just when the country is going elections.
She is a one of the intelligent politicians in this country, however, the FDD is just another party, which one day might go to bed under the orders of the registrar of societies, if we choose to go the truly legal way.
In 2008, she put her weight behind the MMD and President Banda, who today, she says, has not worked to people’s expectations.
Taking a solo stance in the forthcoming elections would not be prudent because the FDD simply lacks and has lost those grassroot structures it had.
NAREP, NMPP
New on the scene, still teething and trying to explore the political waters and then comes a larger than life litmus test in form of the 2011 general elections.
Just like the FDD, the party does not have any grassroots, the only difference is that the Nawakwi-led party once had and it even, at least, produced some of this country’s strong members of parliament.
Mr Chipimo could use the respective polls to count his eggs and not chicks and hope that come 2016, NAREP will still be intact and make meaningful opposition to whoever forms the next government.
As for former Finance minister, Ng’andu Magande, he also has to do what NAREP should do, count the eggs and wait for the chicks to hatch.
True to everyone and everybody, Mr Magande has not had the time to sell his party ideals and it would not be surprising if in the 20th September general elections, he suffers formally former national Democratic Focus President, Ben Mwila’s fate in the previous elections.
Instead of fomenting opposition political diversity, Mr Magande should have sat back and nurture his National Movement for Progressive Party in readiness for the 2016 general elections.
But for now, pundits could describe Mr Magande’s NMPP as not among the front runners for this year’s general elections victors.
ADD, NGP, NRP, ZDDM
These are typical of spectators, who once played football at a soccer match.
All of them can play, but on a social level, have an idea of prudent advice to the home team’s technical bench, however the fact is that they are not part of the team.
The Alliance for Development and Democracy and President Charles Milupi can be likened to Akashambatwa Mikusita-Lewanika’s Agenda for Zambia, which has since joined this country’s political parties history.
Mr Milupi, without doubt is among those intelligent and seemingly true to their quest to serve public good and interest, however, the avenue of doing such is not yet ripe to be presented to the electorate.
For the New Generation Party, President Humphrey Siulapwa is one whose ideals never cease to amaze the political scene.
Mr Siulapwa does not seem to realise that by putting his weight behind another political party’s presidential candidate takes away the very essence of the existence of his party.
Ordinarily, the only reason for an opposition party is to provide alternative government however, the NGP chooses to act like the ruling MMD’s other ordinary cadre, a status less than even of the ruling party’s violent cadre, Chris Chalwe.
In fact and interesting enough, the NGP could even be among the chosen 26 in the backdrop of the Elections Institute of Southern Africa already classifying the party among those defunct.
There is no difference the National Revolution Party and the Zambia Direct Democracy Movement as both are make shift parties.
The NRP is an off-shoot of the NGP therefore its ideals can never be any different from those of the later.
Cosmo Mumba heads the NRP but then his quest is always ends up being assimilated by the ruling MMD at the very brink of an election.
In the 2008 presidential elections, the Dr Mumba-led party chose to back the MMD, and just like the NGP defeating the very purpose of their existence.
The case is all the same for the ZDDM and its leader, Edwin Sakala, as evidenced in their act of 2008 in their backing of the ruling party.
Therefore, even this year, if the two decide to go the 2008 way to live what they already lived, it would not be surprising.
UPND, MMD AND PATRIOTIC FRONT
For sure the battle for the republican presidency is between the ruling MMD and the opposition PF, with the UPND playing a curtain-raiser role.
Going by the previous two presidential elections, the front-runners for this year’s general elections are the MMD’s Rupiah Banda and the PF’s Michael Sata.
The MMD, however, have an urge of incumbency, which however is not a passport to retaining power as democracy has many examples of incumbents being dislodged by the opposition.
The ruling party has the resources at its disposal, state machinery as well as the systems of power, one of which is the self-acclaimed independent Electoral Commission of Zambia.
This elections body has had its own tribulations such as the difficulties of commanding public confidence, loyalty and above all legitimacy.
The incumbent party is also privileged to have appointed the current serving ECZ board, whose sense of loyalty is inevitably and unintentionally to the appointing authority.
However putting the cards on the table, the MMD have all state machinery on their side, inclusive of even the current controlling officers in the absence of cabinet and parliament, and let no one be reminded of the judiciary.
However, the only problem for the MMD is the turbulence at the very last minute of some people seeming to be on the right-hand side of its leader, throwing in the towel for whatever reasons.
Critical pundits will even point to the fact that the party has been eaten up from inside itself by ideologies of the former ruling party, UNIP, which without doubt has resurfaced from within the MMD.
The so called true blue, the original architects of the party, back in 1991 have either been secluded, forced out of the party, died and those who have managed to stick around have their space reserved in the back seat.
The Patriotic Front on the other hand is one opposition, which can be likened to a boxer, who takes too much of a beating but never quits, though with its roots directly from the ruling MMD.
This is another party, which has lost one too many presidential elections, the wonder is what makes it the top lead party in opposition.
Its strength is in the maintenance of its original form, which could also be a weakness because its past presidential polls failures have all been under the same structures, so maybe the PF needs an introspective analysis.
Without doubt, it still commands a stronghold in most of the urban areas, if not all, except for the Southern province under the other opposition, the United Party for National Development.
However, the party is yet to find formula for growing a disputable base in the west, south and east parts of the country as can be evidenced from the composition of its past cadre-representation in parliament.
The PF commands so much faith among most pro-change Zambians driving a few shivers down the very spine of the MMD as evidenced in the ruling party’s painstaking focused campaign against the Sata-led opposition party.
But perhaps top of the PF’s weaknesses is the need for a self-assessment to understand the core of its failed attempts to capture the top chief executive position of this country or is it just that lady lucky has never paid the party a visit.
The common grounds for both the MMD and the Pf is that they are all led by old guards, whose background is from the pre-colonial era, into the UNIP period and finally into the MMD era, but at different times and in opposition all the time.
The UPND on the other hand has the youthful leadership, which this country deserves, however, under all honesty, the party stands no chance in the presidential race owing to its setup.
Arguably, the UPND has a no doubted stronghold base in the Southern province, which over time has proved difficult to penetrate for other political parties.
However, because of the cast-iron strongbase, the UPND has almost become a regional organisation, one factor, which contributes to its list of weaknesses.
Only and when the party is able to cast its net wide and overcome the perennial regional representation in parliament, should it consider a go for the republican presidential office.
The dreams of putting into public office, what has never been tried and tested before lies in the UPND, however the party has a lot of home work to do to convince the electorate that it has the right remedy for this country’s problems.
With all said and done, Zambia is truly at a cross-roads as regards political leadership.
One wonders whether the country is on auto-pilot now or has always been since independence because putting all the cards on the table, non-of the past and current presidents ever worked for the country’s top chief executive officer position.
The first republican president, Kenneth Kaunda, not taking away anything of his positive work, was just among the lucky ones around at the time the British chose to leave.
Come the late, Frederick Chiluba, he rode on the popularity on the labour movement, which at the time in 1991, was considered the formidable group, organized at the time to provide an alternative in place of the then forever and ever UNIP.
Even the late Levy Mwanawasa also rode on the already laid groundwork of his predecessor, whose agenda and motive at the time of choosing the late leader, is still unknown up to date.
The incumbent, Rupiah Banda has also worked his way up into the republican presidency on compassionate grounds in the advent of the demise of his predecessor.
Whatever the case, the 2011 general elections will go down memory lane as one heavily and not tightly contested for, what with the 17 aspirants expressing interest in the republican presidency.
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