Even if the courts confirm his election win, parliament can block the President
As President Levy Mwanawasa limped into State House, his month-old government waded into a political quagmire. In the National Assembly, which has not met since his election, opposition parties hold 81 of the 150 seats, and they refuse to help a president who they say was rigged into power an opinion shared, more diplomatically, by observers from the European Union and the United States' Carter Center (AC Vol 42 No 24). The EU observers issued a strongly worded final statement saying that the election results were 'not safe' and they were not confident that they reflected the wishes of the Zambian people. Some EU states are expected to reduce their aid budgets, and anomalies identified by the observers' report could be used in legal moves by the opposition to challenge the results in some 40 constituencies.
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