RESIDENTS of Chawama Constituency are today voting for a new Member of Parliament in what is, by all honest assessments, a costly formality rather than a meaningful democratic exercise. This by-election follows the declaration of a vacancy by the National Assembly of Zambia, citing the prolonged absence of former MP Tasila Lungu, who has been mourning the death of her father, former president Edgar Lungu, whose burial has still not taken place seven months later. In our view, this is one by-election too many, and it exposes a deeper governance problem that Zambia can no longer afford to ignore. There is no dispute about the law. The Constitution and subsidiary legislation provide that when a parliamentary seat falls vacant, a...