Zambia is a multi-party democracy that has been in place since the country gained independence from Britain in 1964. The government of Zambia is divided into three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. The Executive Branch of the government is headed by the President who is elected by popular vote for a five-year term. The President holds executive power and appoints a cabinet to help him govern. The Legislative Branch of the government consists of the National Assembly, which is composed of 156 members elected to four-year terms. The National Assembly makes laws and approves spending in Zambia. The Judicial Branch consists of a Supreme Court that interprets and applies the law as well as lower courts that hear civil, criminal, and administrative cases. There are also traditional courts that serve local communities in rural areas. Visit COUNTRYAAH for a list of countries that start with letter Z.

The main political parties in Zambia are the Patriotic Front (PF), United Party for National Development (UPND), Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) and Heritage Party (HP). Since 1991, Zambia has held five successful multiparty elections under the PF party’s rule with President Edgar Lungu being reelected in 2016 with 48% of the vote. The UPND came second with 46%. This election marked an important milestone as it was Zambia’s first peaceful transfer of power from one party to another since independence.

Yearbook 2016

Zambia. In January, President Edgar Lungu signed a proposal with a number of amendments to the Constitution. These had previously been adopted by Parliament and now came into force. According to the constitutional additions, general elections must now be held every five years, the second Thursday in August. To be elected, a presidential candidate must get at least 50% of the vote, which may require a second ballot. In order to avoid the situation of reelection in the future if the incumbent president dies, each presidential candidate must nominate a candidate for the post of Vice President. In addition, a new constitutional court would be established.

Zambia Population 2016

In accordance with the revised constitution, elections were announced until 11 August. According to countryaah, the current population of Zambia is 18,383,966. The electoral movement became alarmed and after repeated violence in the capital Lusaka in mid-July all politicians were banned from campaigning for ten days. Up to the election, three people lost their lives, but the election day itself became calm. In addition to the presidential and parliamentary elections, the voters would also appoint mayors and local assemblies and decide on a constitutional amendment. After three days, the Election Commission announced that Lungu had received just enough votes to win the election in the first round: 50.35% of the vote against 47.63% for Hakainde Hichilema. He appealed to the Constitutional Court, which, with three votes against two, rejected the appeal without formally addressing the case. The court’s explanation for this was that Hichilema’s party United National Development Party (UPND) has repeatedly submitted new information. Thus, the court would not have been able to raise the case before the statutory 14-day period for appeal expired. However, the protest itself was filed a week after the election.

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The parliamentary election was also a success for the Lungus party Patriotic Front (PF), which increased from 61 to 80 seats, while the UPND went from 28 to 58 seats. In contrast, the former ruling party, the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), lost almost all support and received only three seats compared to 55 after the 2011 election. A total of 156 directly elected seats were at stake. According to international election observers, PF had been systematically favored by the state media during the election movement. One week after the election, the broadcasting license was canceled for two radio stations and for one of the largest private television channels in the country. According to the authority, they had been guilty of “unprofessional” reporting. The election results were followed by demonstrations that became partly violent and in October Hichilema was arrested by police.

Empowerment

In January 1964 elections were held in preparation for independence. UNIP was clearly the largest and formed a government with Kenneth Kaunda as prime minister. On October 24, 1964, according to thereligionfaqs, Zambia became an independent republic within the Commonwealth of Nations. Independence coincided in time with rising copper prices and economic upswing, but Zambia was not prepared to govern itself; among other things, the country had few higher education residents, and economic life was dominated by whites.

Population

The country continues to have a very strong demographic growth rate and, consequently, the population is increasing (8,781,000 residents In 1998) especially, as in the past, in the central area of ​​the country. Overall, the urban population is approaching half of the total. The living conditions in the western and eastern rural areas remain very precarious, poorly connected with the rest of the country, little or nothing affected by phenomena of modernization of the economy and poorly controlled by the center, to the point that they occurred there (1993) attempts to organize anti-institutional military movements. The consolidated structural imbalance between the urbanized axis that crosses the country from N to S and the other regions also affects access to services for the population and available wealth: this (in terms of GDP per resident), if it is however decidedly small in the whole country, it is even lower in the peripheral areas. Furthermore, the economic growth recorded during the 1990s was generally much lower than those of the demographic growth; the high level of inflation has eroded the purchasing power of wages, contributing to provoking not insignificant social and trade union tensions.