Profile: Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa
by Liu Jinhai
LUSAKA, Aug.19 (Xinhua) -- A vital political reshuffle is about to be staged in Zambia as President Levy Mwanawasa died at the age of 59 in Paris on Tuesday morning after being hospitalized in the Percy Military Hospital for more than a month.
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The condition of Zambian President Levy Patrick Mwanawasa had been making steady progress until Sunday night when his condition suddenly changed and required urgent intervention, Vice President Rupiah Banda said Monday. (Xinhua, File Photo)
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Vice President Rupiah Banda said on state television
that Mwanawasa, who was admitted into hospital after being hit by a stroke on
June 29 in Sharm-el-Sheik, Egypt, where he was to attend the African Union
summit, died at 10:30 a.m. (0830 GMT) in the hospital Tuesday.
According to the Zambian Constitution, a presidential
election is to be called within 90 days if the president dies in office.
Presidential elections take place every five years in
Zambia. The latest was held in 2006, in which Mwanawasa won a second term by a
very narrow margin.
The announcement of the president's death came just
after Banda said Monday that Mwanawasa's condition had been making steady
progress until Sunday night when his condition suddenly changed and required
urgent intervention.
The ruling Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD),
whose leader was Mwanawasa, has been accused of hiding the truth about
Mwanawasa's illness in a "time-buying" tactics to get well-prepared for the
emergency by-election.
On July 3, a Johannesburg-based radio station
reported Mwanawasa was "dead," generating widespread panic across Zambia.
The story was later dismissed as a misrepresentation
but political rumors remained abounding in Lusaka for lack of information.
POLITICAL TIME-BOMBER
Mwanawasa's health has become a political time-bomber
since he assumed the presidency in October 2006.
He suffered a mild stroke in April 2006, just months
before the general elections, arousing speculations about whether he would be
fit for such a top position.
However, he made a quick recovery after receiving
treatment in London.
Mwanawasa's sudden death will throw the MMD into
intensive power struggles since he failed to name a successor when he was alive,
according to analysts.
Who should take over from Mwanawasa in the MMD has
loomed large while bitter rows over the new leadership continuously hit the
headlines in Zambia.
The race for the MMD presidency, after a short
warm-up in late 2007, slowed to a crawl as Mwanawasa muffled his favor until
death.
Word spread out that the late president had
hand-picked Foreign Minister Kabinga Pande, MMD's No.3, as next boss but the
succession is now facing disruptions with party dignitaries gearing up to fill
in the power vacuum.
The leadership crisis will probably cost the MMD the
impending presidential by-election if not solved wisely, observers say.
The Post newspaper has reported that Zambia's biggest
opposition party, the Patriotic Front (PF), is pushing for an electoral pact
with another opposition United Party for National Development in the event of a
presidential by-election.
The report quoted PF sources as saying that "it
is actually being dealt with at the top level. We want our cooperation
through these meetings to culminate into an alliance or electoral pact because it
seems likely that we are headed for a presidential
by-election."
Zambian president dies in Paris
LUSAKA, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa has died in the Percy Military Hospital in Paris after being hospitalized there for more than a month, Vice President Rupiah Banda said Tuesday.
Banda said on television that Mwanawasa died at 10:30 a.m. (0830 GMT) Tuesday. Full story
Zambian President's condition serious
LUSAKA, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- The condition of Zambian President Levy Patrick Mwanawasa had been making steady progress until Sunday night when his condition suddenly changed and required urgent intervention, Vice President Rupiah Banda said here Monday.
