Zambia: 1991 general elections

Extracted from: KAELA, LCW 2002 "Zambia" IN Compendium of Elections in Southern Africa (2002), edited by Tom Lodge, Denis Kadima and David Pottie, EISA, 380-381.

The October 1991 elections were held as part of the transition from the one-party state to the multi-party system. They took place against the background of prolonged poor economic performance and growing social unrest. The campaign against the one-party state, initially spearheaded by the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions which started towards the end of 1989, led to the formation of the broad-based MDM [Movement for Multi-Party Democracy] in July 1990 as a pressure group dedicated to campaigning for the re-introduction of multi-party politics. In December 1990, the UNIP [United National Independence Party] government succumbed to pressure and amended the constitution to allow formation of opposition parties. The MMD registered as a political party, together with nine others. The stage was set for elections, following the adoption of a new constitution and delimitation of constituencies. The number of constituencies was increased from 125 to 150.

The MMD became the leading opposition party and blamed the economic crisis on the lack of accountability, mismanagement, and poor policies of UNIP. The UNIP regime was labelled a one-party dictatorship. The MMD promised to resuscitate the economy by transforming it into a private sector-driven one, and creating an enabling environment for local and foreign capital. On the political side it promised to maintain a democratic regime predicated on respect for individual rights and freedoms.

UNIP dwelt on its achievements since independence, while acknowledging the poor state of the economy. It pledged to continue to work towards solving the economic malaise, which it blamed basically on external factors such as poor copper prices, high import bills for oil and other commodities, support for national liberation movements in neighbouring countries, and so on. It also emphasized that Zambians had enjoyed peace and stability under its rule. Its manifesto indicated that the party would move towards liberalising the economy and privatising state enterprises.

UNIP had an enormous pool of resources to draw upon. The act that amended the constitution to allow formation of opposition parties, also guaranteed the continued role in government of existing party structures, until the next dissolution of parliament. UNIP received a grant from the state and government vehicles and fuel were used by serving UNIP cabinet ministers and party officials for campaign purposes. Top UNIP leaders were not required by law to obtain police permits in order to convene public campaign meetings. However, the opposition were and the permits were often denied. The MMD relied on donations from well-wishers, membership fees and funds raised from various activities.

The voters' registers used were those compiled in 1988 and revised in 1990, when supplementary voter registration was conducted for the referendum which was supposed to take place in the same year but was cancelled. There were 2.9 million registered voters out of approximately 3.5 million eligible voters.

The 1991 delimitation of constituencies created anomalies between information in the registers and what was on the ground. Consequently thousands of people were forced to move from polling station to polling station in search of their names on polling day. As a result, many of them were unable to vote.

The opposition was concerned about the possibility of the elections being rigged and so demanded the presence of impartial international election observers. The initial unwillingness of the government to oblige led to the formation of local monitoring groups. In the end, international observers were welcome. About 7 000 local monitors and more than 200 international observers covered the 3 489 polling stations in the country.

Voter turn out at the polls was about 43.5% for parliamentary elections. The MMD secure a land slide victory, winning the presidency and getting 125 parliamentary seats, against UNIP's 25 (see 1991 Presidential election national results and 1991 National Assembly national election results). UNIP won all the 19 seats in the Eastern province. MMD parliamentary candidates received 71.96% of the votes cast, and UNIP got 23.6%. Other votes went to small parties which did not win any seats.