Zambia's opposition chooses leader

The ruling party's candidate is struggling to keep his party together

Zambia's newest and highest profile opposition party has elected the former vice president in President Frederick Chiluba's government as its presidential candidate.

At the Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) convention at the weekend, Christon Tembo, convincingly beat three other candidates - including two former ministers.

We must now concentrate on campaigning for the coming elections to ensure that we remove the MMD government

FDD leader Christon Tembo

Elections are due to be held before the end of the year, and President Chiluba's ruling Movement for Multi-party Democracy party (MMD) has been hit this year by a series of defections of ministers and MPs to the FDD.

This followed an ultimately unsuccessful attempt by the president to seek an unconstitutional third term in office.

The FDD have already won two parliamentary by-elections and President Chiluba's chosen successor, Levy Mwanawasa, who is the MMD candidate, appears far from assured of victory.

Out of a total of 1,530 votes cast, Mr Tembo polled 970, while his closest rival former legal minister Vincent Malambo got 353 votes. Former health minister Dr Boniface Kawimbe, and Austin Chewe, a former MP for a rural constituency were the other candidates.

Thanks

Speaking to supporters, after his triumph, Mr Tembo thanked all the contestants, saying they have made democracy work in the FDD.

Ruling party splits are good news for the FDD (Pic: Post of Zambia)

He said: "This is very good. But we must now concentrate on campaigning for the coming elections to ensure that we remove the MMD government."

The MMD has also been hit by the resignation of national secretary Michael Sata, an effective campaigner.

He was unhappy at missing out on a presidential run and has vowed to campaign against Mr Mwanawasa.

The ruling party has congratulated Mr Tembo, but has already raised the nationality issue, suggesting Mr Tembo may be ineligible to be president due to foreign parentage.

Mr Tembo says he does qualify and is a Zambian citizen.