Mwanawasa praises rivals to restore calm

His two closest contenders for the presidency, Michael Sata of the Patriotic Front (PF) and Hakainde Hichilema of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA), were conspicuous by their absence at the presidential inauguration ceremony, held in the more secluded grounds of parliament after a last minute change from the traditional venue of the High Court.

"Losing an election must not make us lose sight of a bigger picture - that we are all fighting for a better Zambia. Mr Michael Sata, your campaign abilities and skills were at their best, and for that I congratulate you. Mr Hichilema, you gave me a good run for my money, despite being late in the race. I admire your courage so much ... You were all worthy contenders," Mwanawasa said in a conciliatory speech at his swearing-in for a second and final 5-year term.

"My re-election will guarantee stability in the economy. As we have attracted several investors, we hope to focus on improving the lives of our people ... Zambia will see accelerated economic growth and job creation."

Mwanawasa's first term was marked by an anti-corruption drive and pro-market economy policies that endeared him to Western donors and brought the cancellation of billions of dollars of external debt, but his policies had little impact on the day-to-day lives of Zambians, two-thirds of whom live on US$1 or less a day.

In a pointed reference, Mwanawasa acknowledged China's recent investments of hundreds of millions of dollars in Zambia's copper and cobalt mines, after Sata threatened during his election campaign to cut ties with the economic powerhouse and embrace Taiwan as a preferred investor. China regards Taiwan as a renegade province.

Less than 24 hours earlier, Ireen Mambilima, chair of the Electoral Commission of Zambia, had announced that Mwanawasa, leader of the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD), had received 42 percent of the 2.5 million votes cast in the poll on 28 September. Sata, who was leading the presidential race by 50 percent in the first two days of counting, came second with 29 percent and businessman Hichilema was third with 26 percent.

Both Sata and Hichilema refused to acknowledge the election result as fair, with Sata remarking that it was a stolen election and alleging that about 400,000 ballots had disappeared.

Clashes between security forces and Sata's supporters rocked several Zambian towns on Sunday and Monday, amid allegations of wide-scale voter fraud. Isolated incidents of violence were still being reported in the capital, Lusaka, and in Copperbelt Province on Tuesday.

Unlike the previous election, which resulted in a prolonged legal battle after Mwanawasa scraped into office with a wafer-thin 1 percent margin, Sata has said he would not pursue the matter in the courts.

Zambia's National Assembly has 158 seats. The MMD secured 72 of them, but because Mwanawasa has presidential authority to appoint another eight deputies, he will be able to extend his majority. The PF returned with 46 seats, mainly from Lusaka, Copperbelt, Northern and Luapula provinces, and the UDA collected 27 seats from Hichilema's home region in southern Zambia.

Local election monitors and observer organisations roundly condemned the election as flawed, but their international counterparts endorsed the poll as the most transparent since multiparty elections were introduced in 1991.

A preliminary joint statement by three civic organisations advocating good governance - the Foundation for Democratic Process, the Southern African Centre for Constructive Resolution of Disputes and the Anti-Voter Apathy Project - said they would publish a detailed report of their concerns soon.

"We observed instances of pre-stamped presidential ballots ... we also observed that in a number of instances significant discrepancies were noted between the results declared at polling stations and those announced at collation centres. In other cases, the total numbers of votes for presidential and parliamentary elections in the same constituency varied by a significant margin," the statement said.

The fourth multiparty election since Zambia emerged from 27 years of one-party rule will not lead to a deepening of democracy, according to a situation report by the Institute for Security Studies, a South African political thinktank.

"Zambia is a perfect case of the 'politics of interregnum', in which the old is dying and the new has refused to be born," said the report's authors, Peter Kagwanja and Patrick Mutahi. "Multiparty Zambia is still battling with an ingrained legacy of colonial authoritarianism, overlaid with postcolonial despotism after independence from Britain in 1964."

Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba and Tanzanian president Jakaya Kiketwe attended the inauguration ceremony, but both former Zambian presidents - Kenneth Kaunda and his successor Frederick Chiluba - were not among the handful of MMD members and sympathisers present.

Chiluba, who handpicked Mwanawasa as his successor, has been in and out of court on corruption charges since he stepped down from the presidency in 2001.