Zambians go to the polls to elect a new president on Thursday amid high levels of anxiety about the result, but with disagreements over election procedures largely resolved, says the leader of a civil society monitoring group.
Leshele Thoahlane, chairman of the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa and formerly head of Lesotho's electoral commission, told AllAfrica in an interview that Zambia’s commission had reached an accord with all parties “on all the issues over which there were disagreements.”
A last-minute dispute on Wednesday over the contents of two trucks heading to polling stations had been resolved, he said. They turned out to be carrying lamps and batteries for the stations. “But of course there is a very high level of anxiety from all political parties; the contestation is very high...” he added.
The names of four presidential candidates will appear on ballot forms in voting for a successor to the late President Levy Mwanawasa, who died in office after suffering a stroke.
Mwanawasa’s death has been a blow to the region, especially because of his leadership in trying to resolve the impasse in Zimbabwe.
Under Zambian constitutional law, a new president must be elected in fresh polls within 90 days. Over the past week news agencies have suggested that the leader of the opposition Patriotic Front (PF), Michael Sata, has a strong chance of winning the election.
However, Thoahlane said that “from what we are gathering almost everybody is having very strong feelings that they are going to win... All the four parties that we met... say they feel that their candidates have every chance of winning the presidency.”
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Sata broke away from the ruling Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) after Mwanawasa was chosen over him as leader of the party in 2001.
The MMD candidate is Rupiah Banda, who has been acting president since Mwanawasa’s death.
There have been reports of violence in the run-up to the polls, and fears that voting may not be free and fair.
Thoahlane said that there had been concern over the printing of extra ballot papers “but the matter was resolved jointly with the electoral commission... and the status now is that whatever extra papers that are there have been stored.... and can only be released with the consent of all the stakeholders.”
He added that his delegation of monitors had observed “a very good working relationship between the stakeholders, the political parties and the electoral commission.”
