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Paper short abstract:

This paper accounts for Michael Sata’s 2011 electoral victory in Zambia. It argues the nature of campaigning and significance of individual politicians in relation to everyday concerns were no less important than the interaction between Zambia’s global economic integration and local politics.

Paper long abstract:

On September 23, 2011, opposition Patriotic Front (PF) candidate, Michael Sata, was declared winner of the Zambian presidential elections, after defeating nine other contestants including incumbent Rupiah Banda of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), which had ruled Zambia since 1991. Although Banda emerged victorious in most of the rural constituencies, Sata swept nearly all the urban centres, reflecting disparities in strategies of mobilisation and a divide in interests between the rural and urban electorate. At the heart of the campaigns, especially in urban areas, was the unresolved question of the growing presence of Chinese investment and population in the country.

This paper examines the politics leading up the last election in Zambia, and explores the strategies that rival leaders employed to mobilise political support and enhance their electoral appeal. It argues that the outcome of the election was as much a result of the nature of political campaigning and significance of individual political leadership in relation to the immediate concerns of the day as it was a reflection of the enduring significance and consequences of the interaction between Zambia's integration into the global economy and local politics.