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National
Day:
24th October 1964
Form of State:
Unitary headed by a
Republican President who is elected by universal
suffrage for a term of
five years
Administrative
Divisions:
9 provinces, namely, Central, Copperbelt, Eastern, Luapula,
Lusaka, Northern, North-Western, Southern and Western. Further,
Zambia is divided into 72 districts
Legal System:Based on English Common
Law and Customary Law.
Government: The President and
his/her appointed cabinet.
Legislature: National Assembly: comprising
150 members of parliament elected by universal suffrage
for five-year terms. In addition, the President has the discretion
to nominate an additional 8 members.
Judiciary:
An independent
Judiciary headed by the Chief Justice
Political System:
Multiparty
Democracy.
Main Parties:The Movement for
Multiparty Democracy (MMD) is the ruling party.
The main political
parties in opposition include: the United Party for National
Development (UPND); Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD);
United National Independence Party (UNIP) who together formed the
United Democratic Alliance (UDA); Heritage Party (HP); Zambia
Republican Party (ZRP) and Patriotic Front (PF). National Elections
last held in October 2008.
Political History:
Zambia got its
independence from Great Britain in 1964. Before then,
Zambia was called
Northern Rhodesia. As a colonial territory, the then Northern
Rhodesia was administered by the British South African (BSA) Company
between 1891 and 1923.
It was
administered by the British Colonial Government between 1924 and
1963. Dr. Kenneth Kaunda was the first Republican President for the independent state and the
United National Independence Party (UNIP) was the ruling Party, until 1990.
From 1972 to 1990, Zambia was a one-party state
under Dr Kenneth Kaunda and UNIP. General multi-Party elections were
held in 1991, 1996 and 2001 and a by-election in 2008, all of
which were won by the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD). Frederick
Chiluba of the MMD was the Second Republican President and was in
power from 1991 to 2000. Dr Levy P. Mwanawasa of
the MMD was the third republican President and was in power from 2001
until his death in 2008. The current and Fourth Republican President, Rupiah B.
Banda (MMD) took over in 2008 after winning the October 2008 Presidential
by-election.
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