Zambian presidential election, 1996

The Zambian Presidential election was held on 18 November 1996. The incumbent President of Zambia Frederick Chiluba was re-elected easily after the main opposition party, the United National Independence Party, boycotted the election. The election took place at the same time as parliamentary elections were held.

Background

Frederick Chiluba had been elected in the 1991 Presidential election after President Kenneth Kaunda had been forced to agree to constitutional amendments making Zambia into a multi-party state. By 1996 his Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) party was less committed to reform and some supporters had left to form opposition parties.cite web| url = http://www.traveldocs.com/zm/govern.htm | title = Zambia: Government
accessdate = 2007-12-30 | publisher = "Travel Document Systems"]

In May 1996 constitutional amendments were passed by the National Assembly of Zambia, where the MMD had a large majority, barring citizens with foreign parentage from contesting the election.cite web| url = http://bushcamps.co.uk/information/zambia.htm | title = About Zambia
accessdate = 2007-12-30 | publisher = "The Bushcamp Company"] This prevented Kaunda and other prominent opposition leaders from standing.cite web| url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A01EFD61E3AF932A15752C1A960958260 | title = President Is Re-elected in Zambia, but Vote Is Called Tainted | accessdate = 2007-12-30 | date = 1996-11-21| publisher = "The New York Times"] The main opposition party, the United National Independence Party (UNIP), led by Kaunda, also alleged that a faulty voter registration drive meant that the election was already decided. As a result the UNIP decided to boycott the election.

Campaign

The election campaign took place peacefully with five presidential candidates standing. However a number of allegations were made between President Chiluba and Kenneth Kaunda during the lead up to the election, these included torture and drug smuggling allegations. President Chiluba was easily re-elected winning well over two-thirds of the vote.

After the election, oppostion candidate, Dean Mungomba, alleged that there had been fraud and vote rigging. The main election monitoring organisation, the Clean Campaign Committee, said that the election was not free and fair.

Elections results

References