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A vote about money

Largesse from the copper boom rather than good policies boosts the President’s chances in next month’s polls

The main challenger to President Rupiah Bwezani Banda in the elections he has called for 20 September is his arch-rival Michael Chilufya Sata: both agree that money will prove critical to the results. Banda has been courting those areas where the governing Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) is weak. Sata, a veteran politician from the Copperbelt, tells his supporters to adopt a donchi kubeba strategy. That’s street talk for ‘don’t tell them’, meaning ‘take the government’s handouts but don’t tell them how you’re voting’. In 1991, President Kenneth Kaunda was shocked to lose the elections after covert opposition-backing officials deliberately misled him. Sata’s people envisage a repeat performance (AC Vol 47 No 21)....

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A vote about money

Largesse from the copper boom rather than good policies boosts the President’s chances in next month’s polls

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