Zambia: A New Regime

A New Regime

In 1990 another round of austerity measures sparked more unrest, and Kaunda was the target of a coup attempt. In the same year the constitution was amended to allow opposition parties. In 1991, Frederick Chiluba, a trade unionist who promised both political and economic reform for Zambia, overwhelmed Kaunda in the presidential election, and Chiluba's Movement for Multiparty Democracy party (MMD) won the majority of seats in the parliament. A coup allegedly plotted by the opposition led to a brief state of emergency in 1993.

Chiluba's economic reforms, including plans for privatizing the copper industry, initially resulted in better relations with foreign-aid donors, and economic conditions improved somewhat, but Zambia continued to be burdened by a large international debt. Chiluba was reelected in 1996, after parliament passed a constitutional amendment preventing Kaunda from running again. Following a 1997 coup attempt, Chiluba again declared a state of emergency. Numerous opposition leaders and military officers were arrested, including Kaunda, who was freed in 1998 and announced his intention to retire from politics.

By the end of the 20th cent., the standard of living in Zambia was about half what it had been in the mid-1960s, before copper prices began falling. Unemployment and inflation were high, and the country was threatened by the unprecedented prevalance of deadly AIDS/HIV infections. In May, 2001, Chiluba abandoned a bid for a third term in office; it would have required changing the constitution's two-term limit. Chiluba's attempt to change the constitution had provoked a political crisis, both within the country and within his own party.

In the December elections the MMD candidate, Levy Mwanawasa, was elected with less than 30% of the vote; the badly divided opposition also failed to win control of the national assembly. Opposition leaders rejected the victories, charging vote rigging, and some international monitors described the poll as seriously flawed. The country's supreme court, however, ultimately rejected (2005) opposition challenges to the election. Although Mwanawasa was originally viewed as Chiluba's protégé, he embarked on an anticorruption campaign that led to charges against Chiluba and others in the preceding government. Mwanawasa's anticorruption moves also resulted in the dismissal of his vice president and finance minister. A resulting attempt to challenge Mwanawasa's leadership of the MMD was easily defeated in July, 2005.

Meanwhile, the president rejected (Feb., 2005) a draft constitution submitted by a commission he had appointed in 2002; churches and civic and opposition groups supported the changes, foremost among them the requirement that a candidate receive more than 50% of the vote to be elected president. A new draft, which still contained that requirement and other recommendations, was submitted before the end of the year, but Mwanawasa said that it could not be adopted before the 2006 presidential election. In the September presidential vote Mwanawasa won reelection with 43% of the vote after trailing early in the campaign. The opposition accused the president of stealing the election, and there were some clashes between opposition supporters and police after the election. The MMD also secured a narrow majority in the national assembly.

In Nov., 2006, former president Chiluba's corruption trial, which had stalled because of his ill health, was officially suspended, and he was permitted to travel (December) to South Africa for medical treatment. However, a case brought in Great Britain, in which the Zambian government sued Chiluba and 19 other people to regain assets in Europe that the government asserted had been acquired through corruption, continued, and in May, 2007, the British court order the 20 defendants to repay $46 million. That same month, a Zambian court ordered Chiluba's trial to resume.

Meanwhile, opposition leader and Patriotic Front (PF) presidential candidate Michael Sata, who had placed second in the 2006 presidential election, was charged in Dec., 2006, with false declaration of his assets prior to the election. Sata denounced the charges as politically motivated, and they were soon dismissed. In June, 2008, President Mwanawasa suffered a stroke; he died in late August. Vice President Rupiah Banda succeeded him as acting president. Banda was elected president in October, narrowly defeating Sata; Hakainde Hichilema was a distant third. Sata again charged the victor with fraud, but southern African observers called the voting free and fair. In Aug., 2009, former president Chiluba was acquitted of corruption. The Sept., 2011, elections ended the MMD's 20 year hold on the presidency when Sata won the office with 43% of the vote, defeating Banda, Hichilema, and others. The PF also won a plurality of the national assembly seats. In Oct., 2014, Sata died and was succeeded on an interim basis by Vice President Guy Scott, an economist born to Scottish parents. Sata's death also led to a split within the PF between a faction aligned with Scott, who was ineligible to run for president, and one aligned with Defense Minister Edgar Lungu, who was chosen by the party's central committee as the PF's presidential candidate. Lungu won the Jan., 2015, special election, edging out opposition candidate Hichilema.

The early 21st cent. saw a revival of a desire for independence or autnonomy in the former Barotseland (now Western Province); the Zambian government was criticized by the Lozi (or Barotse) for not honoring the 1964 treaty that led to Barotseland's incorporation into Zambia. In 2012 traditional Lozi leaders in the Bartoseland National Council called for the area to pursue its own self-determination. Barotseland's traditional royal household supported the call for autonomy, which was denounced by the Zambian government and not supported by some of the other ethnic groups in the region.

The Aug., 2016, presidential election largely duplicated the 2015 special election. Lungu narrowly won more than 50% of the vote, but Hichilema's party accused the electoral commission of reducing its candidate's vote. Hichilema was charged with sedition in October after allegedly telling a crowd not to recognize Lungu as president. In Apr., 2017, he was charged with treason for allegedly obstructing Lungu's motorcade and jailed, but the charges were dropped in August. In July, 2017, after a series of arson fires that Lungu blamed on the opposition, the parliament approved a 90-day state of emergency.

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