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Observing the elections in Zambia

Sarah Fradgley (Media and Communications Expert, New Zealand) shares her experiences of working alongside the Commonwealth Secretariat's team and the Commonwealth Observer Group to deliver a successful mission.

My Kenyan colleague, Kennedy Nyaundi, and I left Lusaka early on the morning of 18 September 2011 to travel 860 kilometres to Kasama, Northern Province for election day.

We travelled through the Lusaka suburbs full of stunning lilac jacaranda trees, on to Kabwe in Central Province, before turning onto the long Great North Road in the direction of Tanzania.

In the small towns along the way, we passed Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) billboards encouraging participation in the elections. For the rest of the journey, there was just a vast, empty and beautiful landscape for visual company, a perfect backdrop against which to reflect upon the first part of mission in Lusaka.

Is it too much of an exaggeration, or perhaps a little sentimental, to say that our 12-member Commonwealth Observer Group (COG) and excellent Secretariat team represented a microcosm of the Commonwealth family of nations in partnership, in action? Maybe so, but there, it’s already been said, and the delete button on my laptop isn’t working.

Led by General Yakubu Gowon from Nigeria, and composed of observers from all continents and oceans of the Commonwealth, the COG spent its first four days meeting all the key electoral stakeholders in Zambia.

We heard about election preparations from the Chair of the ECZ, Justice Irene Mambilima, immediately after her return from the airport to witness the unloading of ballots from South Africa.

Over subsequent days, we met with the Movement for Multi-party Democracy and the Patriotic Front, as well as other political parties; and we had discussions with the Zambia National Women’s Lobby, Young Women in Action, Transparency International, the Zambia Chapter of the Media Institute for Southern Africa, as well as the Commonwealth High Commissioners to Lusaka.

Away from the formal briefing sessions, the Chair of the COG held a well-attended opening press conference; the COG welcomed election stakeholders, including other observer groups, to a poolside cocktail; we collected our ECZ accreditation in rush-hour traffic; Secretariat staff gave first-class briefings on the political and electoral history of Zambia and our reporting duties during deployment to the provinces; and we became proud owners of multi-pocketed Commonwealth fishing jackets.

After a 12-hour journey, via a chicken and ‘nshima’ (stiff maize meal porridge) pit-stop in Serenje and various petrol refills, including one at Mpika (home town to Michael Sata), Ken and I arrived in Kasama.

In the 24 hours prior to the opening of polls on 20 September 2011, we met with other international observers in the region; met the very impressive head of the Civil Society Election Coalition in Northern Province; spoke with returning officers in urban and rural constituencies; and watched pick-up truck after pick-up truck depart from the district office piled high with election materials and dedicated polling station staff who were about to embark on a long day or two of travel, polling, counting, packing, travel again and tabulation, with little or no rest. 

Prior to election day, the main issues raised were worries about election materials not reaching the most remote of areas; domestic observers perhaps not being able to be present at each of the streams and polling stations across the Province; and, as a result of the sometimes irresponsible and dangerous campaigning and reporting, concern about what might happen after election day.

In the early hours of 20 September, long, good-natured queues started to form outside polling stations across Zambia. From about 0300 hours, voters began to wait in line to cast their votes in the Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Government elections.

Ken and I chose a polling station with four streams, located at a large school, for the opening of polls. By 0530, the presiding officer, assistant presiding officers and other polling staff were more than ready for the opening of polls.

At 0545, in the presence of party agents, domestic and international observers, the empty ballot boxes were shown to everyone and the boxes were closed with numbered seals. At 0600, all four streams opened for voting. Thereafter, men and women, old and young – young in particular for there were more than one million new voters on the voters’ register for these elections – began to vote.

The atmosphere outside polling stations varied from patient calm to noisy excitement. Polling went well, as did the count we observed later on that night.

What struck us most of all, from polling through to counting and then tabulation throughout the following day at constituency level, was the excellent consultative and collaborative relationship between election officials and party agents and observers, an observation made by Commonwealth colleagues throughout Zambia.

The long road home to Lusaka, marked as on the way up by the TAZARA railway line to either our left or right, began with a magnificent, unforgettable sunrise over Kasama.

The return journey was punctuated by news of results and updates from the ECZ, and concern for a colleague whose car had been attacked (thankfully he and his driver were fine) as he was leaving Kitwe.

In between receiving the latest election-related updates, delicious chicken and ‘nshima’ were once again essential, as were the anecdotes of the fascinating life and times of our driver, who’d seen the Berlin Wall fall, driven for Rupiah Banda decades earlier, and who enjoyed the singing of Dolly Parton and Cilla Black.

Following a team debrief, and the sharing of our various experiences, we spent our remaining few days agreeing content (and commas) for the Final Report (as well as taking time out to mingle with the celebratory crowds in front of the Supreme Court in the run-up to the Presidential inauguration).

Anyway, comma or no comma, (delete as appropriate), it was an absolute privilege to take part in the Commonwealth Observer Group for the Zambian Elections: to represent the Commonwealth, to meet such great colleagues, and to be present in the fascinating country that is Zambia, at such an important time in its history.

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