Zambia holds a presidential election on January 20, 2015. Eleven parties have qualified for the election, including the Green Party, which is campaigning to legalize marijuana, and also to try to export marijuana to countries that permit medicinal marijuana. See this story. If any reader knows what the Zambian ballot access laws are, please comment.
The Green Party is organized in eleven African nations. The 2015 Zambia presidential election appears to be the first such election at which the Green Party has participated. There was no Green Party candidate in the last Zambian presidential election, which was held in 2011. The 2011 election had candidates from ten parties.
I’m not advocating 11 political parties in the United States to have permanent ballot access, and be able to run candidates, but it is strange countries such as Zambia have elections laws which allows such. I guess if they understood and practiced the concept of “Instant Runoff,” the 11 parties would be no more threat to stability than having 4 or 5 – what we need in the United States.
Will be interested to see how stable the election process continues. Law and Order in countries like this is not as secure as it is in the United States. I wonder (and pray not) how many of their candidates will meet the fate of violence before all the votes are “counted” and a ruling party established.
Nonpartisan App.V. for all executive/judicial offices pending Condorcet head to head math.
The most interesting feature of the presidential election is that it is a by-election, following the death in October of President Michael Sata. At the general election in 2011, he had been elected with a plurality of 42%, with 36% and 18% for the major contenders, and under 1% for each of 7 other contenders. You may be aware that at one time, the USA had statutory provision for a presidential by-election.
The constitution requires a by-election to be held within 90 days, and January 20 is at that limit.
Based on press releases on Electoral Commission of Zambia website, candidates must be nominated or sponsored by a political party, with no independent candidates.
Registration of the nominations is apparently in person, with the nominee expected to arrive with his national registration card, and 200 supporters with their registration cards, and the non-refundable filing fee of 10,000 Zambian Kwachas ($1.92).
The selection of the nominees of the two largest parties was quite messy, with various factions promoting their favored candidate. In the case of Sata’s political party, the Patriotic Front, its cabinet members have gone so far as calling for the impeachment of the acting President (Vice President Guy Scott).
It appears that registration of political parties is under a general law that applies to any organization of 10 or members, and is not regulated by election law. Registration of a society requires 10 individuals.
Congratulations to the people of Tunisia from the new International Parliament!
http://internationalparliamentmofa.wordpress.com/2014/12/24/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A8%D8%B1%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%84%D9%8A-%D9%8A%D9%8F%D8%A8%D8%B1%D9%82-%D9%84%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%A6%D9%8A%D8%B3-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D9%88%D9%86%D8%B3%D9%8A/
Sounds like a hodge podge of leftist politicians who are out to control the government without regards to the needs and opinions of the average citizen.
As Jim Riley pointed out in his reply, “The selection of the nominees of the two largest parties was quite messy, with various factions promoting their favored candidate.”
Thanks, but no thanks, I’ll continue with promoting a Independent movement here in the United States. The uniting factors will be that all candidates may qualify for the ballot by filing fee, government shall pay each candidate xxx dollars to promote their individual candidacies, rather than xxx dollars from special interest groups, and any media promoting a debate must include all candidates under penalty of the law.
This is the only way to have fair and stable elections.
I was able to find some information online about the Zambian ballot access laws. See http://www.elections.org.zm/media/electoral_acts.pdf (pp. 108-109) and http://www.elections.org.zm/media/press-release.pdf.
@Jim Riley: The fee of 10,000 Zambian kwachas is actually equal to about US$1,600 — the kwacha was revalued about two years ago.
Thanks for the note om the kwacha. Just goes to show that you can’t trust everything on the internet. The currency symbol for the pre-2013 kwacha is ZMK, and this is what Google uses. For the revalued note, ZMW is used. If you type ZMW, Google suggests that you probably meant “ZMK”.
I had seen the electoral laws, constitution, etc. There is quite a bit in the constitution about political parties, but the only thing in statute was that which treated a “political party” as a “society”.
One requirement to be President of Zambia is that both parents need to have been born Zambian citizens. This may have been directed at Kenneth Kaunda, whose father was born in what is now Malawi.
I quite like the requirement that the supporters of candidacy show up in person. Imagine if this applied to Chicago. There are several possibilities.
(1) When counting Emanuel’s supporters, they would count by 5’s. While counting Wilson’s they would lose track – “11,486; 11,487; 11,488; please be quiet, you’ve made be lose count, where was I, 10,848; 10,849”.
(2) Emanuel’s supporters would be ushered in to the CBOE headquarters and served hot cocoa; while Wilson’s supporters would be left outside with -23F chill factor, while police dogs snarled at them (the police would keep warm in their police vehicles).
(3) They’d realize what a ridiculous number 12,500 persons was, and change it.