Zambian opposition still angry

2005-02-17 10:18

Lusaka - Zambia's opposition on Thursday angrily criticised the Supreme Court for validating President Levy Mwanawasa's election victory in 2001 in a ruling that capped a protracted three-year legal battle.

But Mwanawasa urged his rivals to accept the court decision and begin preparing for the presidential election scheduled for next year.

"We are certainly not happy with the verdict," said Anderson Mazoka who claims he lost the 2001 election by only 44 000 ballots.

"We feel we adduced a lot of evidence to warrant the nullification of the result but the courts ignored our evidence," he said.

Zambia's third president, Mwanawasa, 56, picked up nearly 29% of the vote in the 2001 election, followed closely by Mazoka, who garnered about 27%.

Elections next year

The Supreme Court on Wednesday threw out a challenge to Mwanawasa's election victory lodged by the opposition in 2002 just after Mwanawasa took office, saying that while the ballot was flawed this did not affect the final result.

Chief Justice Ernest Sakala, heading a seven-judge bench, declared at the end of a marathon 12-hour session that the opposition candidates had only managed to prove six of the 36 grounds of appeal against the president's victory.

"The highest court in Zambia has sanctioned corruption by confirming the flawed results," Edith Nawakwi, vice-president of the Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD), one of the parties that petitioned the results, told AFP.

Mazoka said that if the court had ordered a recount, he would have emerged winner because Mwanawasa was declared president when counting of ballots was incomplete.

For his part, Mwanawasa said the opposition leaders would have another chance to unseat him at the ballot box.

"I can now say that I am the duly and lawfully elected president and they are the losing candidates," Mwanawasa told the private newspaper The Post.

"We will soon be having elections next year and if they are good people, they will be elected," Mwanawasa is quoted as saying by the local newspaper.

The complaints were filed in January 2002, just 14 days after Mwanawasa took office, and hearings have been held regularly since then, with more than 100 witnesses testifying.

Two presidential candidates in the elections had asked the Supreme Court to scrap the election results, alleging vote-rigging and vote-buying, while a third wanted a recount of the ballots.

The international observers, including the European Union, declared Mwanawasa's victory as not being free and fair.

A trained lawyer, Mwanawasa was chosen by former president Frederick Chiluba to succeed him but later fell out with his mentor over corruption.

Chiluba has been on trial since December 2003 on various charges of fraud and theft of public funds.

- AFP