Independence Celebration an Opportunity to Reflect on the Performance of our Democracy

R​As Zambia celebrates 58 years of independence, it is a cause of celebration for every advocate of democracy in this great nation. Over the past 58 years, the nation has made some strides in realizing the true potential of democracy through a democratic system of government in which supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodic free elections. Some of the characteristics of a good democracy which successive governments have been entrenching to varying degrees include respect for basic human rights, a multi-party political system paired with political tolerance, a democratic voting system, respect for the rule of law, democratic governance, and the citizen participation. One outstanding issue in Zambia’s democratic architecture is the on-going process of refining the Constitution of the Republic. Zambia has had the constitutional reforms of 1972 and 1991 under President Kaunda, the reforms of 1996 under President Chiluba, and the reforms of 2016 under President Lungu. All these attempts to refine the constitution have struggled to give Zambia a solid legal foundation which expresses the hopes and dreams of the people. Unfortunately constitutional reform agenda has many a times been driven by a party in government with a motive to entrench itself in power. Read more