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 Periodical article |
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| Title: | The 1996 Zambian Elections: Still Awaiting Democratic Consolidation |
| Authors: | Baylies, Carolyn L. Szeftel, Morris |
| Year: | 1997 |
| Periodical: | Review of African Political Economy |
| Volume: | 24 |
| Issue: | 71 |
| Pages: | 113-128 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Zambia |
| Subjects: | democracy elections Movement for Multiparty Democracy 1996 Politics and Government |
| External links: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056249708704242 https://www.jstor.org/stable/4006399 |
| Abstract: | On 18 November 1996 presidential and parliamentary elections were held for the second time under Zambia's Third Republic. This article examines the elections within the broader context of the democratization process. After an analysis of the voting (drawing some comparisons with the 1991 elections) the article considers the extent to which the 1996 elections serve as a measure of democratic consolidation. The electoral victory of the MMD (Movement for Multiparty Democracy) government after five years of economic restructuring and austerity should have been a sign of the legitimacy of the democratization process. Instead, the government finds itself having presided over an election about which many aspects are disputed and criticized. It is accused of reversing the democratic direction set out in its founding programme, of constitutional and electoral manipulation, of presiding over an inadequate voter registration process and of unfairness in the conduct of the actual elections. It is at loggerheads with human rights activists and its relations with the donor community have become strained. The article suggests that at the heart of the controversy aroused by the elections is a lack of consensus over rules and norms governing what is and what is not democratization. Bibliogr., notes, ref. |
