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Key dates in the post-independence history of Zambia, which goes to the polls on August 12 after a violent presidential election campaign:
“The Gandhi of Africa”
The country known under British rule as Northern Rhodesia became an independent state within the Commonwealth on October 24, 1964.
Kenneth Kaunda, leader of the main nationalist party and nicknamed “Africa’s Gandhi” for his nonviolent activism, becomes its first president.
He ruled for 27 years under a one-party system, during which time he welcomed many who fought against repressive and colonial regimes, including the South African ANC and Zimbabwean exiles, including Robert Mugabe.
Food riots
The widespread famine in the copper belt region of the north of the country in 1986 sparked riots and the following year Zambia cut off relations with the International Monetary Fund.
In 1989, in a desperate economic situation, he adopted austerity measures. A year later, riots fueled again by economic difficulties left 45 dead.
First multiparty elections
Multiparty democracy was adopted in 1990 after a referendum.
Supporters of Frederick Chiluba applaud his presidential inauguration in 1991, the first of two terms he will serve as President of Zambia. By Walter DHLADHLA (AFP / File) A year later, Frederick Chiluba and his Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) won the first multiparty elections, marking the end of Kaunda’s reign.
Chiluba launches a privatization program, which concerns 250 public enterprises.
In a contested election in 1996, he won a new term after preventing Kaunda from returning via a constitutional amendment.
Under popular pressure in 2001, Chiluba said he would not run in the next presidential election, failing to change the constitution for a third term.
Successive Presidents
In 2002, Chiluba’s chosen successor, Levy Mwanawasa, was invested after narrowly winning a vote tainted with accusations of fraud. He won a second term in 2006, but died two years later.
Vice President Rupiah Banda steps in and wins a close race against Michael Sata of the Patriotic Front (PF), which will win the next elections in 2011, marred by sporadic violence in Lusaka and mining towns.
Sata, nicknamed “King Cobra”, is accused of abuse by the opposition, while former supporters say he reneged on his promises.
Sata died in 2014, and in January 2015, interim PF leader Edgar Lungu was sworn in, pledging to unite the country and rebuild the economy.
Contested election
In August 2016, Lungu narrowly won the presidency against main rival Hakainde Hichilema of the United Party for National Development (UPND) after a violent campaign that saw clashes between the two main parties.
Zambian President Edward Lungu is seeking a contested second term in August. By Gianluigi Guercia (AFP / File) A month later, the Constitutional Court rejected Hichilema’s accusation of fraud and Lungu was confirmed president.
He later decides that Lungu can run for a second term in the August election, rejecting opposition arguments that Lungu has already served two terms.
“Brutal repression”
In June, Amnesty International warns that the crackdown under Lungu has pushed Zambia to the brink of a “human rights crisis”.
The organization reports over the past five years “an increasingly brutal crackdown on human rights characterized by brazen attacks on all forms of dissent.”
On August 1, Lungu ordered the deployment of the army to quell violence ahead of the elections.
In several regions of the country, supporters of the ruling PF and the UPND opposition clash armed with machetes, axes and slingshots.
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