Population: 13,881,336

Constitution: Republic

Date of Independence: 24 Oct 1964

CPA Branch Formed: 01 Jan 1948

Voting Age: 18

Branch Profile:

Date CPA Branch formed: 1948 (Northern Rhodesia) 1964 (Zambia) Current constitution: 1991, providing for a multiparty system after a period of single-party rule since 1972. Legislature: The legislature is unicameral. The sole chamber, the National Assembly, has 150 members directly elected, up to eight nominated by the president, and a speaker, all having a five-year term. Political makeup of government: Rupiah Banda won the 2008 presidential election as the candidate of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD). The MMD is the largest party in the National Assembly although since the 2006 legislative elections it has only had a clear majority thanks to the inclusion of the unelected members nominated by the president. After his formal inauguration as president, Banda on 15 November 2008 named his vice president and carried out an extensive reshuffle of the cabinet. There was a minor reshuffle on 24 March 2009. The communications and transport minister, Dora Siliya, resigned on 21 April, after a tribunal found she had breached the constitution in ignoring advice from the attorney general. She was cleared in the appeal court in June, and reappointed to the cabinet on 17 June as minister for education in a minor reshuffle. Several items of information provided by People in Power.