Levy Patrick Mwanawasa (3 September 1948 – 19 August 2008) was a Zambian politician who served as the third president of Zambia. He served as president from January 2002 until his death in August 2008. Mwanawasa is credited with having initiated a campaign to rid the corruption situation in Zambia during his term. Prior to Mwanawasa's election, he served as the fourth vice-president of Zambia from November 1991 to July 1994, whilst an elected Member of Parliament of Chifubu Constituency.
Mr. Mwanawasa was born in Mufulira, Northern Rhodesia, as the second of 10 children. He held a law degree from the University of Zambia. He worked in private law firms from 1974 until 1978 when he formed his own firm: Mwanawasa & Company. In 1985, Mwanawasa served as Solicitor General in the Zambian government but he went back to private practice in 1986.
In 1989, he led the legal defence team for Lt. Gen Christon Tembo, who was accused by the Kenneth Kaunda government of conspiracy to overthrow the government, which was judged as an act of treason worthy of the death penalty; Tembo won the case against the state, and Mwanawasa's fame among the anti-Kaunda opposition grew. After Frederick Chiluba was elected as president, he appointed Mwanawasa as vice-president in November 1991. Mwanawasa left his firm in March 1992.
Before his party's convention in 1990, Mwanawasa was widely tipped to become the president of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), but he declined the overture, citing his young age and inexperience. He opted instead to stand as a member of parliament for Chifubu and won with an overwhelming majority of the popular vote.
On 8 December 1991 Mwanawasa was involved in a serious traffic accident in which his aide died on the spot. He suffered multiple body injuries and was flown to Johannesburg, South Africa for medical treatment. He remained hospitalised for three months. A lasting effect of the accident was his noticeably slurred speech. A commission of inquiry was set up to investigate who was responsible for the alleged assassination attempt.
Mwanawasa served as vice-president until he resigned in July 1994. In 1996 he unsuccessfully challenged Chiluba for the presidency of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy. After the loss, Mwanawasa retired from politics until the 2001 election.
In August 2001, the National Executive Committee of MMD elected Mwanawasa as its presidential candidate for the 2001 election. He won the election, held on 27 December 2001, with 29% due to Zambia's first past the post system, beating 10 other candidates including two other former vice-presidents (Godfrey Miyanda and Gen. Christon Tembo); Anderson Mazoka came in a close second with 27%, according to official results. Mwanawasa took office on 2 January 2002. However, the results of the elections were disputed by main opposition parties, including Mazoka's United Party for National Development. Some domestic and international election monitors cited serious irregularities with the campaign and election, including flawed voter registration, unequal and biased media coverage, and the MMD's improper use of state resources. In January 2002, three opposition candidates petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn Mwanawasa's victory. While the court agreed that the poll was flawed, it ruled in February 2005 that the irregularities did not affect the results and declined the petition.
In February 2002, Mwanawasa's government filed defamation charges against The 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 apologised 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.
Mwanawasa ran for a second term in the presidential election held on 28 September 2006. Michael Sata of the Patriotic Front was considered his main challenger. His re-election was confirmed on 2 October; according to official results, he received 42.98% of the vote. He was sworn in for another term on 3 October. A few days later, he named a new cabinet and appointed Rupiah Banda as vice-president.
Foreign investors liked Mwanawasa, owing partly to his anti-corruption drive. During his presidency, Zambia received foreign investment. The main driver of economic growth was minerals. Mwanawasa's policies helped to lower inflation and spread some benefits to the poor. Tourists and white farmers diverted from Zimbabwe and helped Zambian economy. Mwanawasa turned the Zambian town of Livingstone, near Victoria Falls, into a tourist hub. Zambia received a relatively large amount of aid and debt relief because of liberalisation and Mwanawasa's "stolid efforts". Overall, economic growth increased to about 6% per year.
Mwanawasa criticised President Robert Mugabe of neighbouring Zimbabwe. Mwanawasa was one of the first African leaders to publicly do so. When Mwanawasa died, Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was among the first to publicly express grief.
Mwanawasa sold off Konkola Copper Mines to Vedanta for $25m despite an initial asking price of $400m. An amount (i.e. $25m) the company made back in around 3 months and was later making a minimum of $500m in profit per year despite its environmental pollutions of the local community.
Mwanawasa was open to accepting climate immigrants from Kiribati into Zambia, telling Anote Tong that the country had "plenty of room", but a deal was not finalized.
In April 2006, Mwanawasa experienced a mild stroke.
On 29 June 2008, while in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, for an African Union summit, Mwanawasa was hospitalised due to a second stroke. On 1 July, International SOS evacuated him by air ambulance to France for further treatment. The head of the Egyptian hospital to which Mwanawasa was taken said that the doctors there had stopped the brain haemorrhage and that he was in a semi-comatose state. Vice-President Banda said that his condition was stable, and Minister of Information Mike Mulongoti noted that Mwanawasa had previously suffered from hypertension; Mulongoti also said that Mwanawasa was a "very hard working man" and said that this may have been a factor.