Tuesday Septemer 20,2011 were the presidential elections for Zambia. People all over the country were traveling to poll booths to vote for who they wanted to win. That evening before dinner I was talking to a few George Benson students and about half of them had voted. They said most people in the Southern province wanted H.H to win because he is Tonga, but they didn’t know who the winner was yet. All they had heard was that there was some violence in Lusaka, some cars were blown up, and they found pre-marked ballots but the press was announcing that the country was peaceful because they didn’t want anyone to think otherwise. The next day there was still no declared winner, but Ba Siaziyu informed us on what was going on. He said due to the pre-marked ballots there were delays and re-voting at certain polling stations. At the time Michael Sata was winning with 265,000 votes, Bana the former president had 192,000 votes, and H.H had 93,000 votes. But only 33 of the 79 constituency’s had turned in their totals.
Michael Sata also known as “The Opposition” is who most of the younger voters were voting for along with most of the Bemba tribes in North and Eastern Zambia. He was campaigning for better agriculture and mines. Also he is a really great speaker Ba Siazyu said if you are against him and then hear him speak once he supposedly will change your mind. He is against corruption but has a harsh personality.
Bana is the former President who’s running again. I heard from a few of the college students that they didn’t want him to win. He wasn’t even elected to be President, the real former president ran two five year terms beginning in 1991 and then passed away so Bana then replaced him until the next election.
H.H. also called Obama (because he wants CHANGE) is Tonga so all the Tonga tribes voted for him in Southern Zambia. He was running because he wanted change, not for power or money. He is a rich man that was driven into politics because of the countries circumstances and was campaigning for better agriculture, education, health, and basic needs of the people. During run offs between candidates, neither Sata nor Bana could find any way to complain or put H.H. down because he ran a very clean and honest race.
On Friday September 23,2011 at 6:00a.m after 52 days of politics the new President was announced from ECZ to officially be Micheal Sata, who received 70% of the votes. At 14:00 the inauguration at the State House in Lusaka began. I watched it in a class room at the college with about 60 Zambian students. We heard Bana give his farewell speech and then due to technical difficulties we could see Sata giving his inauguration speech and all the people who crowded the streets of Lusaka to watch but we couldn’t hear anything he was saying. Underneath on the screen it read “The change we wanted has finally come”. The next elections will be in 2016.
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