Bible Society busy ahead of elections in Zambia

ZAMBIA — A date has yet to be announced for Zambia’s presidential and parliamentary elections, due this year, but the Bible Society of Zambia is calling for prayer that, when the ballots come, they run smoothly and peacefully. Zambians are mindful that it was only last year that a dispute over the last presidential election of 2001 was finally settled: the Supreme Court rejected an opposition challenge to President Mwanawasa’s victory – though it conceded that the ballot had had flaws.

The lack of an announcement of a date for this year’s elections has prompted a lot of debate. Some people argue that, in the normal way, the president should be the one to make the announcement, while others prefer to give responsibility for choosing and announcing the date to the Electoral Commission of Zambia, the body mandated to co-ordinate and implement all the election procedures.

Selling manifestos

Meanwhile, the various political parties, disregarding the absence of a date, are busy selling their manifestos to Zambia’s more than four million registered voters. In order to increase the chances of ousting the ruling Movement for Multi-Party Democracy, a number of major opposition parties have banded together as the United Democratic Alliance, while the churches, together with a number of non-governmental organisations, are taking measures to ensure competing candidates and their teams campaign peacefully.

Pray for peace

Zambia’s Christians have started bringing their different denominations together to pray for peace, and the Bible Society, as well as supporting these meetings with its own call to prayer, is about to publish a Selection called Qualities of a Good Leader. This will focus on desirable leadership qualities as portrayed in the Bible. The Society plans to distribute it as widely as possible before the elections and is hoping that it will help voters to see past the hype and assess a candidate’s true character.

Physical attacks

“A few physical attacks have been reported in some parts during campaigns,” said the Society, “but we hope and pray that they will not lead to anything worse. We continue to call upon God for instruction on how to maintain our peace and unity.”

Zambia’s new constitution, which has yet to be adopted by parliament, has retained the declaration, written into the present 1996 constitution, that Zambia is a ‘Christian nation’. A proposal in the draft constitution to describe Zambia as merely ‘God fearing’ provoked protests. Statistics state that 85 per cent of Zambians are Christians – though all faiths are guaranteed full religious freedom. In Zambia these include traditional ethnic religions, Islam and Hinduism.

For stories about the Scripture Selection God’s Choice for President, produced and distributed by the Bible Society of Zimbabwe at the time of the elections there in 2002, please see World Report 368 and Latest News #190 and #192. (WR 403/12 - 07.06)