Et af Danmarks store gamle samarbejdslande indenfor udviklingsbistanden, kobberlandet Zambia i det sydlige Afrika, skal til valgurnerne
Zambia will hold its presidential and parliamentary elections on Tuesday September 20, the Zambian presidency has said.
A presidential spokesman confirmed President Rupiah Banda’s announcement of the long awaited date, where the ruling Movement For Multiparty Democracy (MMD) will be facing off with the main opposition party, the Patriotic Front.
Mr Banda became president with a narrow victory in elections called on October 2008 after the death of President Levy Mwanawasa.
His opponent, the charismatic main opposition candidate, Michael Sata, alleged that the vote had been rigged, and demanded a recount. Official results declared Mr Banda the winner with 40 per cent of the vote, to Mr Sata’s 38 per cent.
A career diplomat with a relatively low political profile, Mr Banda was picked by Mr Mwanawasa as his vice-president in 2006, before stepping in as acting head of state upon the president’s death.
Splits emerged within Mr Banda’s governing MMD in October 2009. Mr Banda’s rivals rejected calls by his supporters not to hold the usual convention and select Mr Banda as the sole candidate for the 2011 presidential election.
Born in 1937 in Zimbabwe, where his parents had gone to find work, Mr Banda returned to Zambia for his schooling, before going to university in Ethiopia and Sweden.
Under Zambia’s first president, Kenneth Kaunda, he served as foreign minister and minister of mines. Mr Banda’s predecessor, Levy Mwanawasa, became president after a narrow election win in 2001.
Mr Mwanawasa made the fight against corruption a centrepiece of his presidency. Western donors praised him for boosting economic growth to above 5 per cent, cutting Zambia’s foreign debt, and attracting foreign investments, helped by his anti-graft campaign.
Kilder: Verdensbanken og BBC online
