THE presidential election results should unite the country more than divide it if we are to honour the historic period when Zambia reverted to plural politics in 1991.
As the ancient saying in Latin goes, vox populi, vox Dei (the voice of the people is the voice of God), we should uphold the views of the masses because that is what democracy entails.
The victor and the vanquished should respect the voice of the people with the former living up to his promises and the latter recognising the newly-elected leader who would be the sixth president since our copper-rich country got independence in 1964.
The defeated party should concentrate on renewing its commitment towards future victory instead of engaging in combative language and inciting its supporters to break the law.
The victor and vanquished should not consider themselves as enemies but as Zambians who were both vying for the highest office in the land with the inevitable result of a winner and the loser.
Oftentimes, cadres and the media have wrongly emphasised the negative aspects of elections by only highlighting division and conflict.
To the contrary elections should only concentrate on voting for leaders with competence, character and leadership qualities to lead people.
Although this year’s campaign recorded some pockets of violence, it was heartening to note that overall the voting day was peaceful.
This is a plus considering that elections in Africa usually tend to divide the electorate into segments and then ideologically consolidate the majority of these voting blocs.
This unpalatable strategy fragments the nation by party, tribe, region, class and more. Thus each successive presidential election is proclaimed the most divisive, hard-fisted, negative campaign ever. If unbridled, the nation can end up polarised as never before.
Thus the stress on democratic norms that we are emphasising is real considering that it is during this period that old loyalties, grievances and prejudices re-emerge.
Finally, all but one of the candidates and nearly half of the electorate will be disappointed, their hopes dashed, illusions crumbled.
No matter how bitter a pill to lose is, the test of leadership should be measured by how the losing candidate picks himself or herself up from the canvass of loss to move forward.
The usual but overdone cry by many losing candidates is charging that there was rigging, intimidation of voters and other electoral malpractices.
We feel this year’s election has been the fairest taking into consideration that there was no sitting candidate to bar opposition leaders from using the public media, denying political opponents permits and a myriad of tricks usually used by the sitting president.
The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) should be commended for doing a commendable job usually under fierce criticism of underperforming from certain quarters.
To the losing candidate, we would like him to read Romans 13:1-7 which says: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
“For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good.
“But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore, one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience.” OPINION