Zambian President Michael Sata has run into early political difficulties because of some of the administrative changes that he has made.

In particular the recent decision to take away two districts from the Southern Province is turning out to be a hot potato. It has met with stiff opposition.

That decision is viewed with suspicion, it is unpopular and has spawned rumours. Critics see it as a bad case of unilateral decision-making on the part of Sata, who is being cast as a dictator by his adversaries.

"We are now under a kangaroo type of administration. Sata's style of issuing decrees and bulldozing citizens has no place in a civilised democracy like ours. His dictatorial tendencies were manifested in the early days of his administration when he attempted to mutilate the constitution by abolishing the office of Secretary to the Treasury," said Hakainde Hichilema, leader of the opposition United Party for National Development (UPND).

He said Zambians, who had hoped for political and economic participation under the new administration, had now been reduced to mere spectators. He said democracy was under threat, with Sata making "manoeuvres" such as re-aligning constituencies and districts without consultations.

Following a meeting on February 10 in Choma, chiefs from the area said they were "perturbed by the president's unilateral decision" and resolved "not to accept any piece of land currently under the Southern Province to be transferred to another province whether for administrative, economic or any other reason," Hichilema said.

They dared Home Affairs Minister Kennedy Sakeni to arrest them after his earlier warning that government would not tolerate protests against the president's decision on the two districts.

A stand-off is clearly in the making and in a part of the country where Sata and his party have virtually no political influence. Southern Province is a UPND stronghold, where it won all but one of the province's 19 parliamentary seats in the last elections. In the presidential poll, its leader Hichilema trounced Sata.

Since coming to office, Sata has created one province in the north to bring the country's total to ten, created several new districts and will implement the old idea of shifting the Southern Province capital from the border city Livingstone further north, to the more central town of Choma.

Even that is contested by the Livingstone indigenes but not nearly as hotly as that of transferring the two districts.

It has touched off wild but damaging rumours of his plans to "cut up" the country with more excisions to follow and the president is not oblivious.

For instance on February 10, Sata chided the traditional prime minister of the Western Province royal establishment for peddling lies that the government intended to take away three districts from the province. He also rebuked the UPND for misleading the people of Solwezi, the North-Western provincial capital, that it would soon be moved to the Copperbelt Province.

State House did not seem to anticipate any problems.

"It is the feeling of government that Chirundu, bordering Zimbabwe, will be easier to manage from Lusaka as it is located about 140 kilometres away. We consider local government a central feature ... of a well-devolved power structure where decision-making processes are as close as possible to the people," said the statement.

But not everybody agreed. The main criticism remains that there was no prior consultation, only the presidential announcement.

Fred Mutesa, who leads the opposition Zambians for Empowerment and Development (ZED) party, said he saw no direct link between the decentralisation that the president talked about and his decision.

"Power has not been devolved by this action in my view," Mutesa said. He feared that there would be strains on the budget if the re-alignments took place as it seemed they were not budgeted for.

The UPND was more belligerent. Its chairman for elections, Ackson Sejani, accused the government of disadvantaging some provinces under the guise of decentralisation. He warned of discontent because of emotional attachment and that his party did not agree with the idea of transferring districts from one province to another. He added that the creation of new boundaries could lead to strife.