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ZAMBIAThe road still rough for the presidentby MujuleMakani(759 words)
Zambia's opposition political parties are on the warpath. In recent months they have formed a coalition - the National Patriotic coalition comprising at least four main parties headed by former republican President, Kenneth Kaunda. Kaunda is advocating civil disobedience to force the democratically elected government of President Frederick Chiluba out of office before the scheduled elections in 2001 when Chiluba will finish his second term. The opposition argue Chiluba won elections fraudulently. Kaunda who has mastered the politics of civil disobedience which largely helped him to come into power in 1964 after overthrowing the British colonial powers, wants to employ the same methods against the Chiluba government. The first step started with the burning of the controversial 'NIKUV' voters cards. NIKUV voters cards were printed by an Israeli firm which the opposition have linked to the secret Israeli agency the MOSSAD. The firm has been accused of being in cohorts with government and it has been alleged,they helped rig last November's elections (which Kaunda's party United National Independence (UNIP) the main opposition party boycotted). UNIP alleged the ruling Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) used tricks by double printing voters cards to enable MMD party members vote twice. The recipe for violence is there. On July 30, riotous youths of the coalition mainly from Kaunda's political party UNIP, stoned vehicles in the town centre of the capital Lusaka apparently in retaliation for the controversial court ruling over the parentage which the opposition lost recently. Vehicles belonging to the government and judiciary had their windscreens shattered. The judiciary was targeted because of what the opposition believe was a biased ruling in a case in which they wanted President Chiluba to undergo a DNA test with a man who claims to have fathered him. The highest court, the supreme court, presided over by the chief justice dismissed an application by opposition lawyers to force Chiluba to undergo a DNA test. President Chiluba has denied his so called father, Kafupi Chabala, who hails from the former Zaire now Congo, insisting his parents died a long time ago and he was an orphan. The opposition's trump card is that if it is established the man is the president's father, he will automatically lose his presidency because the new Zambian constitution stipulates that a presidential candidate's parents must both be Zambians. Kaunda was effectively barred rom standing in the last election because his parents came from the neighboring Malawi. The church is worried by the escalating violence being perpetrated by the opposition. In a hard hitting statement on August 5, the church called on all peace loving Zambians to reject political leaders advocating violence and for all parties to engage in dialogue. In a joint statement, Reverend Violet Sampaa-Bredt, a prominent clergyman of the Christian Council of Zambia, Reverend Thomas Lumba of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia and Father Ignatius Mwebe of the Zambia Episcopal Conference expressed worries over the violence displayed by the coalition on the July 30 riot. "We condemn in the strongest terms this violence and regret that it can happen in a country which is striving to develop itself. We call on police to exercise professionalism and caution in dealing with such situations as their duty is to protect life and property and avoid unnecessary provocation which can result in further misunderstandings and violence," the statement read in part. The church leaders also urged the people attacking the judiciary to respect the institution as a dispenser of justice as judges were highly professional and people of integrity. Government and opposition parties have been encouraged to foster dialogue to avert a crisis in one of Africa's stable nations which has not experienced a civil war since independence in 1964 (apart from the Lenshina uprising of the early 60's.) Donors have also expressed concern with lack of dialogue between opposition and government which has led to some withholding aid to force government to open talks. But lately, the opposition has expressed some immaturity and have been criticised by a Swedish NGO, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) which attempted to bring the two opposing sides together. The NGO which abandoned its overtures, observed that the opposition were putting up unnecessary demands and thus stifling dialogue. Zambia set high standards of democracy in 1991 as one of the first few African nations to embrace plural politics peacefully. The International community is indeed watching to see if one of Africa's model democracies will go up in flames or will chart out its destiny amicably.
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