AFRICA/ZAMBIA - Elections. The Church: “Choose candidates who have the courage of truth, are committed to issues regarding justice and peace and the common good and in particular to meeting the needs of the poor”

Lusaka (Agenzia Fides) - Four million Zambians are voting today 28 September to elect a president, a parliament and local administration.
The Monfort Fathers’ Malawi Newsletter informs Fides about this “important date for the whole country”. There are three main candidates for presidency: outgoing president Levy Mwanawasa leader of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD). Mr Mwanawasa spent some time in hospital in England recovering from an ictus. Although he recovered quickly it was often said during the electoral campaign that the president’s health was frail. Should he fall ill again there would have to be an election because Zambia’s Constitution does not envisage the succession of the vice President.
Michael Sata, leader of the Patriotic Front, uses popular language focussed on patriotism accusing the Chinese and Indian communities of robbing the country of its riches. The third candidate is Hakainde Hichilema, known as HH, a successful businessman and leader of the United Democratic Alliance, composed of three parties who have great hopes for their candidate from southern Zambia. He accuses Mwanawasa’s MMD of turning Zambia into one of the poorest countries in the world.
The electoral campaign reached even the most remote forest villages with posters and lists displayed at the local shop. “Promises are plentiful. But these are promises made mainly to voters in urban centres. In Malawi only 15% of the people live in towns and city slums but in Zambia, 50% of the people live in suburbs which have grown up around the main mining towns in the northern Copperbelt zone close to Katanga, the mining region of Republic Democratic Congo, another country in the middle of an electoral campaign for the second round of presidential elections” Malawi Newsletter informs us.
On the occasion of the elections the Christian Churches in Zambia were exemplary in offering reference criteria while totally abstaining from supporting any one candidate. The ZEC- Zambian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, CCZ - Council of Churches in Zambia and the EFZ - Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia, suggested the following criteria for choosing a candidate: professional competence, courage for the truth, attention for matters of justice and peace, commitment for the common good, transparency. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 28/9/2006 righe 36 parole 430)