As the day for the January 20 presidential elections draws closer all the focus seems to be on the leading candidates who are the ruling party’s Edgar Lungu and the opposition United Party for National Development’s Hakainde Hichilema. Add to that endorsements, counter endorsements, pangas, tribal vibes and screams for rigging but there is one corner where few are looking at that will be key to this election and probably critical to holding the long cherished peace this country has long enjoyed.
It is the strength of one among the few Iron ladies the country has known in the last 10 years – at least publicly. Justice Ireene Mambilima has craft a legend of firmness and no nonsense when the screws turn on her. Since 2006 she has been at the centre of three highly charged elections where the stakes have been high.
She has taken every imaginable insult or criticism you can imagine but she has emerged through it all with her pride untainted enough to add another potentially
highly charged election under her belt.
If you could bet for anyone to be at the helm of an election at this hour there could be none other than Mambilima to referee a highly emotional final. In truth it will not be hardest election for her to oversee.
She has no incumbent to stand up to this time around. It could not have been any fairer than now and no doubt she could be relishing her moment of glory and once again cement her reputation as a true champion of democracy.
Former President Rupiah Banda is still alive to testify his personal experience at Mambilima’s brutal professional hand. Who could forget her chastising Patriotic Front cadres who had threatened turning violent if their leader Michael Sata was not declared winner? In her words to PF cadres before President Sata was declared winner, “What is this rumpus about? Can people calm and let the process be ended democratically.”
She could have very easily named her price and lived ‘happily’ thereafter but she chose her way-the right way.
Some may remember for her tender yet firm voice as she ran through the results in 2006 when late All People’s Congress president Kenny Ngondo’s Winright Ngondo “two votes” became a signature of the election results.
Overall if anyone could be counted on to bring decency to a fiercely contested election it has to be Ireene Mambilima and anybody wishing to play dirty may just find themselves against a brick wall.
With an acting President in Guy Scott with nothing to lose there could be a lot to look forward to in this election. For now it is game on!
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