The 2001 Zambian general elections: the continuing game of government, opposition, donors and popular will

Jankees van Donge was an election observer for the EU in Zambia and has published analyses of the 1991 and 1996 elections.

The 2001 Zambian elections were unlike any earlier Zambian elections as there was no broad coalition that would be the obvious winner. That broad national front the MMD had fragmented. The outcome of these elections was therefore difficult to predict: there were many parties and candidates and many were newcomers. The results of the elections also came in slowly and it was a very close race for the presidency. In that uncertain situation the authority of the electoral commission was challenged. These challenges were reinforced by election observers who in the run up to the elections had been highly critical of the government and were so in their initial reporting before the results were declared. This provided a space in which the election results could be rejected by the losing parties. As was the case in the 1996 Zambian elections, donors were important actors on the political scene, operating from an ostentatious platform of neutrality.