The politics of Zambia takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Zambia is head of state, head of government and leader of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government, while legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament. Formerly Northern Rhodesia, Zambia became a republic immediately upon attaining independence in October 1964.

 

Whilst Zambia functioned as a democracy from independence it soon became a one-party state for 19 years from 8 December 1972 until Multi-Party democracy was re-introduced on 4 December 1990 which led to Multi-Party elections on 1 November 1991. Since then Zambia has been a relatively stable democracy having consistently peacefully transferred power between four political parties (UNIP, MMD, PF and UPND) and has since 1991 held 9 presidential elections of which 7 were general elections.

 

The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Zambia as a hybrid regime in 2020. The EIU has also consistently put Zambia among the top ten most democratic African countries, ranking it 8th in Africa and 99 in the world as of 2018 (167 states). This is also while Freedom House ranks Zambia as ‘Partly Free’ with a score of 52/100 (0- least free and 100 mostly free) as of 2021.