Zambian election: Sata wins presidential race

Source: BBC News, September 23rd, 2011

Opposition leader Michael Sata has won Zambia's presidential election after two days of vote counting following a tight race with incumbent Rupiah Banda. Mr Sata was declared winner by Chief Justice Ernest Sakala after polling 43% of the vote with just seven constituencies left to be counted. The election had been marred by riots in Zambia's northern mining region. The anger had been prompted by a ban on the media announcing results not verified by the electoral commission. The electoral commission said it had taken the step after its website was hacked to falsely record a landslide for 74-year-old Mr Sata. Mr Banda's Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) has ruled Zambia for 20 years and this was the fourth time Patriotic Front (PF) leader Mr Sata had run for the presidency. He lost the last election, in 2008, by just 35,000 votes which sparked rioting by some opposition supporters in the party's urban strongholds. However, they were in jubilant mood after the victory announcement early on Friday morning. The BBC's Louise Redvers, in the capital Lusaka, said parties were expected to continue into the night. Mr Sata, who reportedly used to sweep floors at London's Victoria Station, has had a lengthy career in politics. He served as an MMD minister for local government, labour and social security, and health before quitting in 2001. Known as "King Cobra" for his venomous tongue, foreign mining firms - often from China - have frequently been the target of his criticism about labour conditions. While the party has disputed media reports it is anti-Chinese, it is likely to shake up the way contracts are awarded, our correspondent said. There were suggestions Chinese firms were bankrolling Mr. Banda's re-election campaign in the run-up to the poll, with PF candidates expressing surprise ar the amount of funds available to the MMD. Meanwhile, International election observers criticised the MMD for abusing state resources during its campaign and noted serious media bias on the part of the state broadcaster. However, the PF's promises of more jobs and better education appear to have won over the electorate.

Investing in the dignity of the people in Zambia: A demand for sustainable economic growth with equity.

Zambia is now officially a middle-income country and even though a minority is truly prospering and GDP has increased, anyone living in Zambia knows that the majority of the people still lives in poverty. To conclude that economic growth is "THE" pre-condition to development and poverty eradication is very misleading. Whilst it may be true that economic growth can make it easier to eradicate poverty, it does not guarantee that growth will lead to less poverty. Inequality and impoverishment is a consequence of the disparities between the educated and uneducated, the skilled and the unskilled, the healthy and unhealthy, the nourished and undernourished and many more. For Zambia to become a true middle-income country, it needs to look beyond the pursuit of ‘economic growth’, and to include solid determination with regard to human development, equity and poverty reduction. The attached article is a reaction by Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR) to the Six national Development Plan (SNDP).

Mobile Hospitals in Zambia: good initiative or election driven project?

The Zambian government has budgetted for "hospital mobile units" for 13 days/month during the period April to December 2011. To anyone outside Zambia this might sound like a great initiative but I have my doubts whether this is the best way to spend 2.4 billion ZMK (bout 4 mil EUR) per province. Would it not have been better to invest in improving existing facilities that can be used by everyone also after December 2011 or is there no need for Health care after the elections? For the problem of people living in very remote areas maybe an extra ambulance could be allocated on a district level?

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