Mufumbwe by-elections

Zambia is certainly not the epicenter of world politics in the first place. Parliamentary by-elections in Mufumbwe district, however, are even for Zambian standards a rather insignificant event: 27.027 registered voters choosing a representative in parliament for their constituency of roughly 55.000 people. After all, there are 158 MPs in Zambia’s National Assembly and more than 13 million Zambians. 

That's the car our team has spent 1500 km in - 750 km to and 750 km back from Mufumbwe. 

To give you a little more detail on the insignificance of it all: Northwestern Province, in which Mufumbwe district is located, is the most sparsely populated province in the country. It has only 706.000 inhabitants, but has with 125,826 km² a third of Germany’s landmass. Mufumbwe, in turn, is a rather large district of the province with a rather small part of the province’s population – and more than 750 km away from the capital. (The blue line in the small map below shows the way from Lusaka to Mufumbwe town that we used.)


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Well, you get the picture: It doesn’t get much more remote than that and it doesn’t get much more “I couldn’t care less” for Zambia’s bobo politicians...

Remotedness - a voter (?) heading towards a polling station.

…if it wouldn’t be for Zambia’s watershed 2011 general elections, that is. After 20 years of MMD rule, these elections brought the Patriotic Front to power. Put differently, they let to the very first change in the country’s leadership between democratically elected governments in Zambia’s history. Taking place roughly one year after these elections, the Mufumbwe by-elections may have been seen as a test for the new ruling party whether it is still able to stir up some enthusiasm in the country – enough to win the parliamentary seat that was up for grabs in the Mufumbwe by-elections, at least. In any case, the PF rented a chopper and flew in all their big shots, inter alia vice-president Guy Scott, to promise everything from new health posts to “more money in your pocket” and – tataa - development. The former ruling party MMD, in turn, is currently fighting to remain a significant player in Zambia’s politics and every by-election for parliament is either another potentially decisive punch in the face or a little help to stay upright. After all, there is the specter of the first post-independence ruling party, UNIP, which rapidly became as insignificant as it gets before dying off after the first multi-party elections in Zambia. Moreover, the MMD recently partnered up with the UPND – the other important opposition party under the MMD government that is still in opposition. The MMD supported their candidate in the June by-elections in their strong-hold Livingstone, expecting UPND to throw their weight behind MMD’s candidate in the Mufumbwe by-elections. So it was a double test for MMD – would their partnership hold in the future and would they be able to garner a much needed moment of glory. Well, I should probably write something about party politics in Zambia before going into more detail. The take-away message: Even though Mufumbwe district is far out and not important in terms of anything you could read out of the statistics, the by-elections here were important this time around.

Anyway, when FODEP asked me whether I would like to come along and monitor these elections, I said immediately yes. Not that I knew very much about the significance of these elections myself. It was rather: “Me, an international election monitor, out there in the bush – yes!” Oh, and these were glorious days – a political safari you could say. (I was the only international monitor, by the way, and the only white person I have seem in a 100 km radius.)

The FODEP monitoring team (plus me)

Writing our pre-election statement.

Forget about the other story on the unregistered cars for a moment. I was impressed by how professionally organized these elections were from the Zambian Election Commission’s side. All polling materials were already distributed one day before the elections, they got a chopper to fly them out to remote (that is, even more remote) polling stations and fly the ballot boxes back in, and the presiding officers (every polling station has one) I met were very knowledgeable, very accurate and very diplomatic. Moreover, in all polling stations at least two party officials were present, making a mark in their copies of the voter register for each voter that came along. I am convinced that you cannot organize the process much more transparent than that.

6 am - the polling station opened on time.

Party representatives checking the voter register.

Counting votes. Outside the schools the voters were already waiting and chanting.

Signing the results sheet that is to be posted outside the polling stations...

...after it has been read out aloud to the waiting constituency.

It is a different matter when it comes to the pre-election period. Bad reporting by the media (“Why checking allegations? Hell, it is a story the moment I can cite a politician!”) and militarily organized party campaigns create an atmosphere that is a bit too mafia-like for me to be completely sure which things could possibly really happen and have happened and which are just propaganda and counter-propaganda. Read our preliminary post-election statement for more details: FODEP post-election interim statement.

Unregistered cars

It is 19 hours (as they say here), but pitch dark in Mufumbwe. Our election monitoring team has arrived earlier the day and has already held several meetings with important stakeholders in the Mufumbwe by-elections. Now we are on our way to the campaign headquarters of one of the strongest contenders for the parliamentary seat that is up for grabs.

We’re stopped by a big-bellied, strong-muscled dude at a large gate to the HQ. We can see dozens of young chaps – party cadres or “foot soldiers” (as they are called by their own party) – hanging around in the compound’s courtyard behind the dude’s impressive silhouette. After some discussion and cross-checking, we are let inside. The candidate greats us from behind a huge desk. Behind him, on the wall, flip charts from a previous meeting with his cadres. One written rule for the campaign team: “Violence shall be used only in self-defense. Be vigilant and ready.” 

While we are listening to his complaints regarding the laziness of the police and the violence of the other teams, the room fills with other party officials. The candidate is telling us how the others are using unregistered cars to carry out misdeeds such as the tearing down of campaign posters and the beating up of his own men (for they are all men) to confuse the public and avoid persecution by the police. His men are adding detail to his allegations: This and that car, this and that violation of the electoral code. I ask him: “So what about the car without number plates in your courtyard here?” A second of silence. Then he says: “What car?” To which his campaign manager responds: “I think he talks about the black Pajero.” I can see that the candidate for a moment is undecided about whom to punch in the face first – his own campaign manager or me. He says: “So what does that have to do with what I was saying?” Nothing, I guess. When we came out, the Pajero was gone.