VZCZCXYZ0004
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHLS #1419/01 2861428
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 131428Z OCT 06
FM AMEMBASSY LUSAKA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3350
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L LUSAKA 001419 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/13/2016 
TAGS: KDEM PGOV EAID ZA
SUBJECT: ZAMBIAN ELECTIONS: A WARTS-AND-ALL INSIDER'S 
ACCOUNT 
 
REF: A. LUSAKA 1362 
     ¶B. LUSAKA 1350 
     ¶C. LUSAKA 1340 
     ¶D. LUSAKA 997 
     ¶E. LUSAKA 702 
 
Classified By: CDA ANDREW PASSEN, REASONS 1.4 (B), (D) 
 
¶1. (C) Summary.  President Mwanawasa won Zambia's September 
28 presidential election "fair and square," according to an 
experienced international elections expert who worked closely 
on the electoral process.  The expert also noted serious 
shortcomings in the management of election results and in the 
performance of senior staff of the Electoral Commission of 
Zambia.  He harshly criticized the ECZ's Information 
Technology Department, its legal advisors, its public 
relations personnel, and the South African contractor that 
set up and operated the results management system, while 
praising ECZ Chairperson Judge Irene Mambilima for her 
efforts and leadership, despite the failings of many of those 
on whom she had to rely.  End summary. 
 
¶2. (C) In an October 12 meeting, an experienced international 
elections expert and senior technical advisor to the 
Electoral Commission of Zambia, shared candid feedback on 
Zambia's September 28 elections in a meeting with 
representatives from resident diplomatic missions who 
provided support to the Zambian elections.  The expert, an 
expatriate funded by the United Nations Development Program 
Trust Fund (Ref D), worked with the senior permanent staff at 
the ECZ as well as with the appointed Chairperson and 
Commissioners who oversee the work of the commission.  He 
said that he was sharing his observations to ensure that 
donors were better aware of problem areas within the ECZ, 
with the hope that donors could provide support to the ECZ 
Chairperson, who intends to make some changes and 
improvements based on her experiences with the 2006 election 
process. 
 
Preparations and Election Day Far Better Than 2001... 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶3. (C) The expert began his readout by accentuating the 
positives, starting with the election preparations.  Overall, 
election materials were delivered on time, in advance of 
election day, and most stations opened on time or not long 
after 6 AM.  A few isolated problems occurred when field 
staff opted to do things "their way" instead of following 
clearly stated ECZ procedures, he said.  He also praised the 
work of the ECZ officials who handled voter education and 
training, despite limited time and resources.  In the future, 
ECZ Chairperson, Judge Mambilima would like to set up a 
special unit with more resources dedicated to training, he 
told donors. 
 
... But Election Results Process a Disaster 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (C) The South African contractor that set up the 
electronic results management system, as well as senior ECZ 
IT staff, assured the Chairperson and Commissioners that the 
system was reliable.  The contractor and ECZ IT staff 
downplayed the expert's suggestion that a strong alternative 
to the electronic system be set up, just in case the system 
failed.  When it became clear that the electronic system was 
not performing adequately, Judge Mambilima made the decision 
to shift to a manual system of transmitting results, using 
fax machines.  However, the ECZ had not taken the expert's 
advice to develop an effective manual system, so the results 
reporting was not comprehensive.  The ECZ simply received 
faxed cumulative counts from the district collating centers, 
without any further documentation, which left the Chairperson 
with little information available to address questions from 
opposition parties and civil society.  The IT department "let 
us down every step of the way," the expert said, adding that 
the Judge intends to deal with the problem. 
 
¶5. (C) The expert said he made a number of other technical 
suggestions to improve the results management process, but 
none were heeded by ECZ staff.  For example, he urged the ECZ 
to ensure consistency across all reporting formats (he 
suggested reporting results in "ballot-paper order"), to 
minimize confusion and human error. The IT staff and 
contractor did not follow his suggestions and, as a result, 
the computer form filled out for the electronic results 
reporting system used a different order, and manual forms 
differed.  The expert said the tremendous discrepancies 
between the number of votes cast for president compared to 
national assembly candidates in some constituencies could be 
attributed (in part) to the inconsistent reporting formats. 
He also noted that rules were applied unevenly, evidenced by 
several constituencies that reported zero rejected ballots 
 
(which he called "statistically impossible").  He added that 
increased training for polling station officials could help 
reduce human error in recording and reporting results.  The 
ECZ has the ability to audit polling station results and the 
expert said he would encourage Judge Mambilima to audit a 
small number of polling stations where the discrepancy 
between the number of presidential and parliamentary votes 
cast was particularly large. 
 
¶6. (C) Despite the "disaster" with the election results 
process, the expert reassured donors that he and his fellow 
international technical advisors working at the ECZ observed 
no clear pattern in the discrepancies that would indicate any 
tampering with the tabulation or results.  The bottom line 
was that results were "genuine" and not rigged in favor of 
any party or candidate.  "President Mwanawasa has won this 
election, fair and square," he stated.  He did note concerns 
over results in local government contests, which have not yet 
been finalized, and mentioned that a returning officer had 
incorrectly announced a ruling party candidate as the winner 
in the Western Province Lukulu West constituency, which 
should have been declared for an opposition party candidate. 
 
Problems With Electoral Act and Interpretation... 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶7. (C) The expert also shared concerns about the current 
Electoral Act, which he described as "appalling" and 
"littered with contradictions."   The new Electoral Act 
enacted by the GRZ in 2006 was very similar to the law it 
replaced (Ref E) and failed to take into account many of the 
procedural changes that the ECZ made when it prepared the 
voter register.  Even worse, he said, was the extremely 
narrow interpretation of the election law, based on the 
thinking, "if the law is silent about something, this means 
it cannot be done."  This is not standard practice around the 
world, the expert stressed.  Rather, election law is normally 
interpreted in a way that favors enfranchisement.  Based on 
rigid interpretation of the law, he believes that some 
election officials rejected ballots that were not stamped by 
polling station officials (per the administrative procedures 
of the ECZ), but other officials were less strict and heeded 
a statement by the Deputy Chief Justice, who reportedly 
encouraged a more pro-enfranchisement interpretation of rules 
and regulations governing the election. 
 
¶8. (C) He also told donors that he had recommended that the 
ECZ develop some simple procedures to enable voters who were 
in possession of valid voter cards but whose names were 
omitted from the voter register to cast a provisional vote. 
Chairperson Mambilima and other Commissioners endorsed the 
recommendation, but senior officials of the ECZ refused to 
implement it, because it was "too much trouble."  The failure 
to address the problem of omissions from the voter rolls 
resulted in some very negative press coverage of a few 
polling stations on election day (Ref C), particularly in one 
Lusaka polling station where omitted voters vociferously 
protested, and fueled suspicions about possible GRZ 
interference in the electoral process. 
 
...And Bigger Problems With ECZ Staff 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶9. (C) The expert said one of the most significant problems 
he observed was with the staff members at the ECZ, many of 
whom were motivated exclusively by self-interest and 
financial enrichment.  Although he described the environment 
at the ECZ as very "political," he clarified that this 
referred to internal power struggles and personality clashes. 
 He and his fellow international technical advisors who 
worked closely with the ECZ did not observe any evidence of 
partisanship on the part of the ECZ staff. 
 
¶10. (C) One example he gave was of a senior officer in charge 
of logistics who maneuvered to remain in Durban for the full 
six-week duration of the ballot printing exercise, gaining 
significant per diem allowances while effectively abandoning 
his responsibility for managing in-country logistics. 
Instead, an international advisor assigned to support the 
logistics official had to step in and handle all the 
election-related logistics. 
 
¶11. (C) In another example, he noted that public relations 
(PR) officials at the ECZ complained to Judge Mambilima that 
a potential international technical advisor--who had already 
conducted a highly critical but accurate needs 
assessment--would be "too disruptive" to the work of the PR 
department.  The advisor was not hired to work longer-term 
with the ECZ and it was too late to identify another 
international expert.  As a result, the handling of public 
relations issued suffered and "Judge Mambilima was not served 
well" by the department.  For example, an extremely 
 
informative and helpful short film about election procedures 
on Election Day was prepared by the voter training and 
awareness team, but never aired on local television.  In 
addition, the ECZ resolved a highly controversial vote count 
discrepancy in an urban Lusaka constituency, Munali, which 
had created a public impression of foul play by the ECZ (Ref 
B) and helped fuel violent protests in the aftermath of 
elections (Ref A).  To this day, the ECZ has not provided a 
public explanation about the favorable resolution of the 
Munali discrepancy. 
 
¶12. (C) Finally, the expert criticized the ECZ legal 
department for its poor advice and support to the Chairperson 
and Commissioners.  As described above, they narrowly 
interpreted electoral law and rules.  They maintained, for 
example, that the ECZ simply cannot do a recount.  Although 
this is "technically correct," the expert believes the law 
can be interpreted differently.  Most troubling, he said, is 
the ECZ stance regarding identified and confirmed problems 
with specific election results.  Based on advice from its 
lawyers, the ECZ said it will inform candidates about 
problems with results, but will not make an appeal on their 
behalf.  Instead, at some expense, candidates will have to 
engage a lawyer and file a petition to question the results 
and request a legal review.  Donors should pressure the ECZ 
to take administrative action to correct results when 
mistakes are obvious, the expert said.   At a minimum, the 
ECZ should make individual polling station results available 
to candidates who are considering a legal challenge, even 
though the Electoral Act does not require the Commission to 
do so. 
 
Praise for Judge Mambilima...and Hope for a Better ECZ 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶13. (C) In the expert's opinion, without Judge Mambilima and 
the handful of international technical advisors, the ECZ 
would have performed just as badly or even worse in 2006, 
compared to 2001 elections.  He commended Judge Mambilima's 
leadership and noted that she could not always impose her 
will and had to give authority to the senior ECZ staff, 
because she had to rely on them to get the job done.  He 
mentioned that in the days just before the election he gave 
the Judge a four-page memo outlining many of his concerns and 
that in private conversations with him, she bluntly 
acknowledged the problems and told him she plans to do 
something about them. 
 
¶14. (C) Comment.  Many of the observations of the technical 
expert could be viewed as an "I told you so," self-serving 
account of the problems with the recent election.  However, 
in our extensive exchanges with him in recent months, he has 
always come across as earnest, objective and committed to 
doing a good job.  We believe his stated intent of sharing 
this feedback, and share his hope that Judge Mambilima will 
stay on the job and make needed changes to the ECZ.  We also 
share his assessment about the undeniably positive impact 
that Judge Mambilima and the international experts who 
assisted the ECZ had on the conduct of elections. 
PASSEN