The Executive Legislature: Zambia’s Crisis of Checks and Balances

It is trite and notoriously known to every civically educated citizen, legal scholar, and political analyst that a democratic government is made up of three branches, namely the Executive, Legislature, and Judiciary. Consequently, these three branches of government aim to serve three separate core functions of government. French philosopher Baron de Montesquieu first conceptualised the three branches of government in his 1748 work, The Spirit of the Laws. This concept of a government consisting of three branches was thus developed and established into what is contemporarily known throughout all democratically civilised nations, of which Zambia rightly is. The simple, albeit crucial, rationale behind a government consisting of three branches is that efforts to abate human nature's tendency toward tyranny can only be achieved by checking and restraining power, with any degree of freedom preserved by balancing each of these powers against the other two. Essentially, the courts, or Judiciary, are to examine the actions of the Legislative and Executive branches of government to ensure that they are constitutional. The Legislative Branch writes and passes laws. It can check the Executive by overriding presidential vetoes and check the Judiciary by approving or rejecting nominees. The Executive Branch enforces the laws through the President and Cabinet. It checks the Legislature through veto power and checks the Judiciary by nominating judges. Zambia, globally known for being a democratic country since the transition to multiparty democracy in 1991, has held nine presidential elections and witnessed four peaceful changes of administration across different political parties. While this has been democratically commendable and notable to the world and the ordinary Zambian citizen, a magnified look at these peaceful transitions and administrations reveals a panorama of misconstrued democratic principles, an ever-constrained morphing Constitution, questionable government ins