Democracy and Electoral Politics In Zambia

Zambia's elections in 2015 and 2016 were accorded a generally clean bill of health by international observers and monitors. For example, the European Union team found the electoral process free and transparent. Several teams noted that election day had been mainly peaceful, despite a polarised campaign. EISA's mission statement (2016) concluded that election day procedures and what followed them met normally accepted standards of credibility despite an 'uneven playing field' during campaigning.1 The opposition's presidential candidate and his party rejected the outcome and petitioned the Constitutional Court but their case was not tested. The Court found that their petition had not been submitted within the required fourteen days after the poll, a requirement which, as the EISA observers' report noted, would have been nearly impossible to fulfill.