Political Lessons – A case of Zambia
By Msaiwale J. Mlewa
The best candidate doesn’t always win.
Roads and bridges won’t compensate for unemployment.
All the clever tricks in the world won’t keep you in power.
No amount of advertising will compensate for your blunders.
Long lines during voter registration and during elections isn’t a good sign for the ruling party.
Turning off the internet while people (mainly the youth) are on the voting line is a big. no no.
Running for office is expensive
M.P – K500-1, 000, 000
Councilor – K200, 000
President 2 million dollars
( am estimating here)
You can buy all the t-shirts, hoodies and chitenges you want and still lose.
Don’t put your posters first they will be torn and covered.
Arrogance doesn’t pay.
The country isn’t a family business.
The youth have more power than you think.
Zambia isn’t Uganda or Zimbabwe.
Most of your supporters aren’t loyal they will ditch you the first chance they get when they were the very same ones making you make bad decisions.
Block/protest voting is a reality in Zambia.
You can win or lose an election simply because you failed to read the mood.
Most winners rode on the party and/or the president.
In most cases even a puppy would have won on the right ticket.
You can actually win an election with little or no money and no campaigning or community work if you’re on the right ticket.
Most voters don’t know the candidates besides the presidents they voted for.
A manifesto in Zambia is useless most of the time.
Tribalism is a myth more so for the youth.
We wait for things to get really bad then we react.
We assume the behaviour of the presidential candidate automatically translates to the behaviors of the others in the party ( it doesn’t).
Elections are marred with electoral malpractice. ECZ waits for police reports which never come and thus they never act.
ECZ takes way too long to issue official results.
The president conceding should not be a prerequisite to declaring the winner.
