He worked his way up through the rough-and-tumble rank-and-file of the former ruling UnitedNationalIndependenceParty to the governorship of Lusaka in 1985, where he made his mark as an action man.
These ranged from the eccentric United Kingdom IndependenceParty and Geert Wilders's Freedom Party in the Netherlands, which both came second in their national polls, to Hungary's anti-gypsy Jobbik party and the Pirate Party in Sweden.