daniel chigunwe
LUSAKA. – Zambians yesterday voted for a new leader, with long queues pointing to a high turnout in an election showdown between President Edgar Lungu and main opposition rival Hakainde Hichilema that looks too tight to call.
The two rivals, who voted at different stations hours apart, were both confident of winning the vote and the close contest raised the possibility of a run-off.
The electoral agency says it expects to declare a winner within 72 hours after polls close. Polling stations closed at 6pm, and vote counting was started last night, with pollsters predicting a tight race
Zambia, Africa’s second biggest copper producer, became the continent’s first country during the coronavirus pandemic to default on its sovereign debt in November.
Voters patiently waited in the sun to cast their ballots. At a polling station in an affluent suburb of the capital Lusaka, crowds cheered “we want change” as Hichilema arrived to vote. The opposition leader blew back kisses to the crowd.
“Everybody must be allowed to vote. I am concerned about the speed,” said Hichilema after he voted.
Earlier, Lungu was among the first voters at a station in Chawama township in the capital. Wearing a black leather jacket, a white face mask and accompanied by his wife, he waved to a cheering crowd as he left in his motorcade.
“We are winning, otherwise I wouldn’t have been in the race if we were not winning,” Lungu told reporters.
Some voters walked to polling stations with chairs, while others shared pictures of long queues on Twitter.
In the Kabwata suburb of Lusaka, first time voter Ben Mulenga, 19, braved the early morning cold and arrived two and a half hours before voting started because he anticipated long queues.
Some 54 percent of registered voters were 34 years or younger, statistics from the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) show.
That could help Hichilema, who is facing Lungu for the third time and has placed the economy front and centre of his campaign, political analysts said.
Zambia’s economy will be among the continent’s slowest growing economies this year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates.
In office since 2015, 64-year-old Lungu narrowly defeated Hichilema, the CEO of an accountancy firm before entering politics, in a disputed election the following year. – Reuters.
J.P. Morgan said the outcome of the election could meaningfully shape Zambia’s medium-term economic outlook as the new president would need to deliver a credible economic reform package acceptable to the IMF and voters.
The president has touted the new road, airport and energy projects he has overseen as laying the groundwork for economic development and growth.
But so far his debt-financed infrastructure splurge has failed to pay economic dividends, and unemployment remains high. – Reuters.
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