Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Mwanawasa Wins in Zambia

As I reported last week, Zambians went to the polls Thursday. In all-too-typical fashion, the challenger Michael Sata has claimed irregularities in the voting, charges serious enough to require police deployment after violence flared.


Nonetheless, President Levy Mwanawasa has been decleared the winner. The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) announced the final results yesterday. Perhaps the Zambian election can be seen as representing a form of progress, however tentative, since peace held and Sata, for all of his skepticism, appears disinclined to contest the results. Zambia is one of several countries in Subsaharan Africa that hold promise for a move away from the Big Man politics that have so devastated much of the region and toward a genuinely African form of democratic liberalism. Every successful election brings the promise of hope ever the closer.

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