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Zambia's Presidential Candidate Promises to Build Efficient Govt.
Levey Mwanawasa, the presidential candidate of Zambia's ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy ( MMD), said Sunday he will establish an honest and efficient government if he is elected as the country's president.
"When I am elected as republican president, those who will be appointed into my government should know that the honeymoon is over, it will be a period of self discipline, commitment and hard work," Mwanawasa told hundreds of supporters at his private residence.
"Those who will join my cabinet shall be expected to make a commitment to hard work and selfless service," he said, adding that "I intend to be firm but fair during my tenure of office because this is what the people of Zambia expect." Mwanawasa said he will ensure existing democratic institutions are strengthened when he is elected as president.
"We shall pursue legal and legislative reforms to give further authority and powers of prosecution to the Anti-Corruption Commission, the Permanent Human Rights Commission, the Drug Enforcement Commission, the tribunal created by the parliamentary and ministerial code of conduct act and the Zambia Police Service," he said.
"It is not intended that once I am elected president, it will be the purpose of my office to conduct a witch-hunt of transgressions committed in the past. "Our intention is to provide a clear policy direction and establish a foundation for transparent and accountable governance, and to provide an atmosphere for all organs of government to undertake their responsibilities as required of them by the law." Mwanawasa, a 53-year-old veteran politician, was chosen Thursday by President Frederick Chiluba as a presidential candidate of the ruling party. Analysts here said the reason for Chiluba to select Mwanawasa is that he is untainted by recent corruption scandals.
Mwanawasa was one of the MMD founders and served as Chiluba's vice-president soon after winning elections in 1991, which ousted founding president Kenneth Kaunda. In 1994, Mwanawasa quitted his job as vice president because he complained Chiluba's bad records on human rights and graft.
However, he challenged Chiluba for the presidency of the party in 1995, but lost.
Since then, he withdrew to his private law practice in the Copperbelt city of Ndola and the capital Lusaka, leading a quite life.
Analysts said his resignation from the vice presidency won him some public sympathy and enhanced his stature as a man of integrity. It also gave him several years of free of association with baggage of corruption and bad management dogging other members of Chiluba's inner circle, they added.
The two persons, who are expected to be Mwanawasa's rivals in the forthcoming presidential elections, are Christon Tembo and Godfrey Miyanda, both of whom defected from the ruling party and set up their own opposition parties, namely, the Forum of Development and Democracy and the Heritage Party.
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