Monday, September 26, 2011

Michael Sata won

He was the candidate for the opposition party, the Patriotic Front.
When he ran in the elections last time his loss was fairly close.

The former President Rupiah Banda put alot of effort into his campaign this time and as mentioned earlier was buying bikes and handing our chitenges and paving roads etc.

The slogan for Sata was “Don’t Kubeba”, or Donchi Kubeba. Don’t tell.
When Banda’s party hands out all their things, just receive them and don’t tell them you are voting for Sata. It was a great campaign, and they even had a song that they made and played all the time in vehicles driving by, places of business, bars, etc.

Donchi Kubeba, eyi eyi shshhhhh, shshhhh. It was a catchy song with a cool beat and I liked it! Though now that they have won and it is playing everywhere all the time it has lost some of its appeal.

As it seemed that Sata could win, there was concern and question over whether or not Banda would interfere and rig the elections somehow.

Rioting started taking places after the vote later in the week when the results were not coming out quickly and websites were shut down. TV and Radio stations were blacked out and everyone was just waiting.

The fear and concerns were that if Banda won, all the PF supporters would protest and riot and that is when things could have gotten worse and more dangerous.

It was a strange week. Thursday the results were supposed to come out and so businesses were closing down early, people were all racing to the grocery stores before they closed. I mentioned that it felt like when we lived in FL and a hurricane was coming, and everyone was racing around to get home and stay inside.

It was said that they would release the winner after everyone was home and it was late.
So the evening went on and nothing, until about 12:30am then a wild cheer erupted outside and we knew Sata had won. From that point on until the next evening there was noise and excitement and cheering outside, car horns beeping, people shouting, standing out of the window in cars and trucks raising their fists... I have never experienced anything like it before.

To say people were excited is putting it mildly. The inauguration took place Friday afternoon and things were calm once again.

We are very thankful the Lord protected us and the people of Zambia from political unrest and upheaval. I don’t know much about Sata as a man. I have heard some not so good things and then others say good things, so we will have to wait and see.

I have never claimed to be interested in or very knowledgeable of politics so I can’t give any assesment or thoughts on how the country will go. But I did want to let you know a little bit of how the week went.

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