The Zambian Election

Zambians are queuing at the polling stations today to elect a new president, parliament, and municipal councils. The presidential race is tight, but so far peace has prevailed and the sitting President, Levy Mwanawasa, who is running for a second and constitutionally-mandated final five-year term, has promised to stand down if he is defeated at the hands of his only other serious competitor in the multi-candidate race, Michael Sate, a firebrand populist who has promised to put more control in the hands of working-class Zambians. Observers are predicting the closest election since Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia) achieved its independence in 1964.