Defying Boycott, Zambians Turn Out for Elections

Voters trudged through mud to cast ballots Monday in Zambia’s elections, defying a boycott called by founding father Kenneth D. Kaunda.

Election officials reported a heavy turnout for the presidential and legislative vote despite a downpour that made it impossible to deliver ballot boxes to some polling stations.

The turnout signaled the collapse of the boycott called by Kaunda, who ruled Zambia for 27 years until his ouster in 1991 and was barred from running in the election.

President Frederick Chiluba is expected to easily defeat four other candidates to retain his post, and his Movement for Multiparty Democracy also is likely to keep its majority in the 150-seat National Assembly.

Election officials in Lusaka, the capital, and other cities said between 50% and 70% of registered voters cast ballots, with some waiting in lines more than five hours in the steady seasonal rain.

“The boycott isn’t working,” said Billy Kamuzyu, an official with the biggest independent monitoring group, the Foundation for Democratic Process.

Kaunda called the boycott because of constitutional amendments passed in May by Chiluba’s government that effectively banned him from the presidency. The amendments require the parents of Zambian presidents to be born in Zambia; Kaunda’s came from neighboring Malawi.

Joel Sikazwe chief administrator of the state-appointed Election Commission said the first substantive returns are expected today.