Movement For Multi-Party Democracy - MMD and The Third Election

MMD and The Third Election

Presidential, parliamentary, and local government elections were held on December 27, 2001. Eleven parties contested the elections. The elections encountered numerous administrative problems with opposition parties alleging that serious irregularities occurred. Nevertheless, the MMD won 27.5% of popular votes and 69 out of 159 parliamentary seats.

Its candidate for the presidential elections, Levy Mwanawasa, received 29.1% of the vote and was declared the victor by a narrow margin. He was sworn into office on January 2, 2002.

Three parties submitted petitions to the High Court, challenging the election results. The petition remained under consideration by the courts in February 2003 when it was ruled that while there had been irregularities these had not been large enough to affect the outcome; thus the result was upheld. Opposition parties won a majority of parliamentary seats in the December, 2001 election, but subsequent by-elections and liberal use of government patronage to secure the support of opposition MPs gave the ruling MMD a slim majority in Parliament.