Publication

This paper looks at the local government and parliamentary elections held between 1991 and 2011 in Zambia to test the commonly held view that political incumbents have an advantage over non-incumbents at the polls in Africa’s emerging democracies. The author found that, in the case of Zambia, incumbents were, in fact, at a disadvantage in the local elections and that incumbency also did not hold any advantage at the parliamentary level. He argues that disadvantages attached to incumbency are associated with higher levels of voter information, poorer economic conditions, and changes in party competition.