Six Months to Nowhere: How Chawama’s By-Election Exposes Policy Contradictions
By Michael Zephaniah Phiri Political Activist
The Chawama by-election is more than a ballot it is a mirror reflecting deep inconsistencies in governance, constitutional interpretation, and the supposed commitment to fiscal discipline. For a government that has repeatedly preached austerity, transparency, and efficiency, plunging public funds into a by-election barely months before a general election is nothing short of a political contradiction.
Zambians are now asking: *How does it make sense to elect an MP who will have no realistic time to deliver anything?*
*A Seat With No Time to Function*
Parliament is approaching dissolution. Even the fastest, best-capacitated Member of Parliament cannot initiate, process, or complete meaningful development programs in the few weeks left before the national campaign period officially takes over. Development is not a sprint. It requires:
▪️ Budget cycles
▪️ Committee approvals
▪️ Implementation procedures
▪️ Procurement
▪️ Time
The new MP for Chawama will barely unpack their briefcase before Parliament shuts down. This makes the entire exercise look less like representation and more like political theatrics.
*Bill 7 and the Constitution Say One Thing, the Government does Another*
The spirit of the Constitution and the logic behind proposals like Bill 7 has always been clear: *When the country is within six months of a general election, by-elections are unnecessary and economically unjustifiable.*
The intention has always been to protect public resources, reduce wasteful political spending, and avoid chaos as the nation transitions toward fresh mandates.
Yet, despite this wisdom, the Chawama by-election has been pushed forward. Why?
If the law guides leaders, and the leaders ignore the spirit of the law, then what remains is politics of convenience. The Speaker could have interpreted the vacancy within this broader constitutional logic. Instead, Chawama became an avoidable cost.
*Fiscal Discipline? Only When Convenient*
This government has lectured the public endlessly about tightening belts, cutting costs, and avoiding unnecessary expenditure. But when political advantage is at stake, the message suddenly changes.
A by-election involves:
▪️ Deployment of thousands of polling staff
▪️ Thousands of security personnel
▪️ Millions spent on logistics
▪️ Printing of ballots
▪️ Campaign spending that drives tensions
All of this for what?
A parliamentary seat that will lapse almost immediately.
At a time when clinics lack medicines, youth lack jobs, teachers lack housing, and councils lack funding, millions will be burned just to run a political ritual with no development value.
If this is fiscal discipline, then Zambia must redefine the term.
*The Contradiction at the Heart of Governance*
The government claims reforms are meant to strengthen democracy. Yet this by-election does the opposite it weakens trust. It exposes a system where laws are invoked selectively and public money is used recklessly.
How can leaders insist on constitutional amendments to rationalise elections while simultaneously making decisions that contradict the very purpose of those amendments?
How can government preach economic prudence while spending on a by-election that even a first-year economics student would deem wasteful?
These contradictions are not accidental they are deliberate political choices.
*A Constituency Used as a Political Experiment*
Chawama has once again been turned into a laboratory for political showmanship. Instead of real development planning, the constituency is subjected to campaign noise, slogans, and last-minute promises.
But after votes are counted, Chawama will remain where it has always been, hoping, waiting, and wondering why its needs are always secondary to political calculations.
*Democracy Requires Logic, Not Just Ballots*
Elections are the heartbeat of democracy, but not every election is logical. When democratic processes lose their development purpose, they become hollow rituals.
Chawama’s by-election is precisely that:
A vote without value.
A mandate without time.
A cost without return.
Such contradictions weaken the very foundations of governance and expose how far political decision-making has drifted from public interest.
*Conclusion: A Lesson the Nation Cannot Ignore*
Chawama’s by-election stands as a clear warning: Zambia must align its laws, governance practices, and fiscal policies. A country cannot preach reform while practicing waste. It cannot declare itself economically struggling while engaging in politically motivated expenditures.
This is a defining moment. Either we accept the contradictions or we demand coherence.
Because at the end of the day, democracy should not just function.
It should make sense.
Your article is selective while at the same time trying hard to hide what you want to prevail. The fact of the matter is that the lot of you lack morality and are not fit to lecture anyone about governance or running a nation. The last time you were at the high table you left a big mess in the coffers of a vibrant nation. You are have encouraged stupid to hold on and not to bury Lungu, now you are busy trying to campaign, yet you’re banking on a unburied corpse to give you leverage at the same time pretending to be sane and economically prudent? Let me tell you something Chawama has been without an MP for almost a year and the nation kept on losing money on someone who should not have been in parliament in the first place. Tasila if anything with the fencing of the national park, and Lungu forcefully making her Chawama MP. This was the time you should have opened your mouth in protest. Tasila was dealing in Mukula, and all those cases she has in court are real and should have continued. I personally believe that she should also pay back the salaries she received without working. No one, company or nation can afford to pay someone without working except PF minions who think public money is free to share amongst themselves. That’s the reason they used to give themselves goverment tenders to deliver nothing but air. We are too smart to be lectured by fools that can not articulate any policies, vision and capacity to reason. If we still have people with doubts, look at the shambles in their leadership!!! For now what is approaching to be five years, they have failed to hold a convention to pick a leader. One should ask. Why don’t they have policies and yet each and everyone in the Central Committee wants to become a president? The answer is simple. Each and everyone of them want to be at the top to steal and become very wealthy like the one still waiting to be buried.
I am glad the author of the article agrees with some provision of Bill 7 on holding of by elections. He states that it is costly to hold the by election now meaning he is aware of the cost by elections bring to the nation. He should now go to the parliamentary select committee still sitting to submit that the party that held the seat should nominate a person to go to parliament instead of costly by elections. For now, that is the law that a by-election should be held in Chawama. That is one thing he selectively wants to forget. Official just want to follow the existing laws. There is no short cut for that. He hasn’t raised any legal provision showing that the law has been broken other than just expressing his personal opinion. That is the reason he should support Bill 7