Election Aftermath

The election passed relatively smoothly with only a few isolated incidents of violence in the city. The problem is that Lusaka and the urban areas of Copperbelt province to the north of us are strongly against the ruling party. These urban results were released about a day before the other results started trickling in so it seemed like an opposition candidate, Michael Sata would win. Rural regions, however, voted in overwhelming numbers for the incumbent, Levy Mwanawasa. As a result, the expected victory turned into a bitter defeat for PF supporters.

Fortunately, the incidents of rioting were quite isolated and localized. Unfortunately, and unbeknownst to me, one of these isolated pockets lay directly on my route to school. On Monday I was on my way to school when I began noticing that there were big rocks that had been heaved on to the road, evidence of fires from the night before, and a complete lack of minibuses (with which I normally have to fight for space on the road). There were also many people on the road and instead of being their normally friendly selves were quite hostile and did a lot of yelling. By the point that I realized that I probably shouldn’t be there and wanted to get out I was already halfway in and figured that it might be easier to go through then go back. Shortly afterwards a couple people threw rocks at me – one of which struck the bike and the other struck my leg. Fortunately, I was able to get through the crowds and made my way to school only to find that it had been cancelled because of the insecurities. Apparently there had been serious rioting the night before and, judging by the bangs I heard that day while holed out in a fellow teacher’s house, there continued to be some disturbances during the day. Hopefully this will clear up quickly and life will resume to normal.