Explain governance
Governance: means the way people are ruled with or without consent. The two types of governance are
good governance and bad governance.
Discuss the characteristics of good and bad governance
Good governance means a government which is an authority is legitimate, competent, accountable and
respects human rights and the rule of law while bad governance is governance which is illegitimate,
incompetent, uncountable and does not respect human rights and the rule of law. Dictatorship is a form of
bad governance.
Below is a table showing characteristics of good or bad governance;
Analyse different electoral systems practiced in the world
Electoral systems are methods by which citizens chose their leaders or representatives and there are four
main methods used by different countries around the world.
The table below shows the table for the electoral system.
Elections are important because:
– Elections are important because they:
– Oblige candidate to explain to the citizens why they should be elected.
– Make political parties accountable to the people.
– Provide a peaceful transfer of power.
– Offer regular opportunities for people to change government.
– Provide peace and stability necessary for development.
- Periodic- Elections must be held when they are due and elected officials must return to the
electorates at some point to seek their mandate to continue office. - Competitive- Elections must take place in a conducive political environment where all candidates
can compete fairly. No violence is permissible - Inclusive- All eligible voters should be allowed to vote without any discrimination.
- Decisive- The winning candidate or party should not be prevented from taking office this is because
democratic elections determine the leadership of a government.
Explain Zambia’s electoral system.
Note: The 1996 Amended constitution of Zambia prescribes the single member plurality system
(SMPS). However, the constitution was again amended in 2016 and the president of Zambia Edgar
Chagwa Lungu assented to the use of single member majoritarian system (SMMS) for presidential
elections only while National Assembly (Parliamentary) and Local Government elections we still use
SMPS or FPTP.
*An electoral process is a series of stages of events involved in the selection of representatives
through an election.
The following are the stages involved in the electoral process of Zambia.
*The electoral code of conduct is a set of rules and principles that regulates the conduct of all stake holders
before, during and after elections.
TYPES OF ELECTIONS
(a) Primary Elections- These are held whenever a political party wants to choose candidates to stand
in presidential, parliamentary and local government elections.
(b) By-Elections- These are held when a President, councillor, Member of Parliament:-
– Dies
– Resigns from its position.
– Expelled from the party.
– Imprisoned for more than six months.
(c) Presidential, parliamentary and local government elections- Also known as Tripartite or general
elections. These are held every five years to elect the president, Member of Parliament and ward
councillors.
Note: In parliamentary or local government elections a candidate can either be sponsored by a
political party or stand as an independent candidate.
Describe the local government system in Zambia.
– Local government before independence was ruled by the British Colonial Administration
through the central government and native authorities.
– The native fell under the ministry of native affairs.
– The native authorities consisted of chiefs and other traditional leaders.
The duties performed by natives included the;
– Collection of taxes.
-Issuing license such as dog, store and bicycle licenses.
– Chiefs performed some judicial functions such as handling civil cases at local courts.
– After 1964 the ministry of local government became responsible for the administration of all
local authorities in the country.
– Steps were taken to establish councils in rural areas, and most of the inherited rural local
authorities were based on traditional units of government, but they were too small to be either
administrative or financially viable.
– The new councils included chiefs appointed by the Minister of Local Government.
– These councils provided a limited range of basic essential services such as schools, libraries,
markets and housing.
– In 1965, a uniform pattern of local authorities throughout the country was established under act
number 69 and there were city, municipal, township and rural councils.
– Then in 1980, the local government decentralization act was enacted. The act allowed UNIP to
take up full responsibility to control the operations of all councils in Zambia.
– It was at this point when, District Governors appointed by the president took over from the
mayors and chairpersons and all councils in the country became district councils.
Reasons for the 1980 decentralization were;
– Reduce delays as most decisions could be made on the spot instead of referring to
headquarters.
– Make plans and programmes more relevant to local needs and conditions.
– Improve co-ordination between different government agencies in the area.
– Reduce the burden of senior staff at national level in order to improve their performance.
– The district council administration was headed by the district executive secretary and supported
by secretaries.
– In 1991 another decentralization act was amended and it introduced three types of local
councils, these were; City, municipal and district councils. Town Clerks and Mayors are found
in City and Municipal Councils while Council Secretary and Council Chairpersons are found
in District councils.
– This has continued to present. The MMD government wanted to give more powers to the
councils so that there was less dependence on central government for funds.
– And this made the councils to operate freely without interference from political parties.
Functions of local councils are;
– Providing clean and safe water.
– Providing accommodation and plots for development.
– Maintaining the environment.
– Collecting levies.
– Making by-laws.
– Providing education facilities and control epidemics such as cholera.
– Awarding trading license to people.
– Sewage disposal.
– Providing street lighting.
– Maintaining streets and roads.
– Maintaining graveyards.
– Controlling livestock movements.
– Constructing and maintaining markets.
– Town planning.
– Providing recreation facilities such as swimming pools and parks.
Discuss the role of traditional leaders in governance.
House of chiefs is a forum through which traditional leaders participate in governance.
-There are 30 chiefs in the house of chiefs. Each of the ten provinces elects three chiefs that
represent them in the house.
– Term of these elected chiefs is three years, but a member can be re-elected for second term of
three years after which he/she is not allowed to be re-elected.
– The house elects its chairperson and vice chairperson from among the members.
-The clerk of the house and other staffs carry out the administrative duties of the house
Functions of the house of chiefs include;
– Discuss bills affecting customs and traditions.
– Debate and pass decisions on matters concerning customary laws and customs.
– Allocating plots under customary law.
– Participating in development projects in their area. To discuss and decide on any matters
referred to it by the president – submit the resolutions of the house to the president who in
turn submits them to the National Assembly.
Problems faced by the house of chiefs;
– It has no real influence on issues of governance and development.
– Plays an insignificant advisory role, as all its resolutions has to be debated upon by the
National Assembly.
-Chiefs are not allowed to join a political party like Members of Parliament.
