First Term As President
In February 2002, Mwanawasa's government filed defamation charges against Zambia Post editor Fred M'membe and opposition lawmaker Dipak Patel for an article in which M'membe quoted Patel as calling Mwanawasa a "cabbage", an apparent reference to his injuries.
However, in a move Mwanawasa described as an attempt to promote "national reconciliation", Mwanawasa appointed a number of opposition lawmakers to his cabinet in February 2003, including Patel of the FDD as Minister of Trade, Commerce, and Industry, and Sylvia Masebo of the ZRP as Local Government Minister. However, Godfrey Miyanda, himself also belonging to the opposition, opposed the move and threatened to file a lawsuit over it.
In January 2005, Mwanawasa apologized to the nation for failing to tackle Zambian poverty. About 75% of the country's population lived on less than $1 a day, the United Nations' indicator of absolute poverty.
He was elected as President of the MMD for a five-year term in 2005.
Read more about this topic: Levy Mwanawasa
Famous quotes containing the words term and/or president:
“Why did you give no hint that night
That quickly after the morrow’s dawn,
And calmly, as if indifferent quite,
You would close your term here, up and be gone”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
“I see the first lady as another means to keep a president from becoming isolated.”
—Nancy Reagan (b. 1923)