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LUSAKA — Zambia’s governing party candidate in next month’s presidential election Edgar Lungu yesterday denied reports that he has been evacuated to South Africa due to ill-health.Lungu, the presidential candidate for the governing Patriotic Front (PF) in the January 20, 2015 election, said he was enjoying perfect health and that reports that he was sick should be dismissed with the contempt they deserve.
Some local online publication reported that Lungu, who is also defence and justice minister, cut his campaign trail in the northern part of the country due to poor health and was evacuated to South Africa over the weekend.
The online publications reported that Lungu fell sick last Friday, forcing his campaign team to postpone his campaign programmes. The publications have also released information from a local hospital which allegedly attended to Lungu, detailing his ill-health.
Recently, the Zambia Medical Doctors Association, an association representing doctors in the country, proposed that all aspiring presidential candidates be subjected to medical check-ups to see how fit they were to run for the country’s top job.
Zambia has lost two sitting presidents due to ill-health. President Levy Mwanawasa died in 2008 when he collapsed while attending an African Union Summit in Egypt. He died a few days later in a military hospital in France while President Michael Sata died last October while in London where he had gone for medical check-ups. — Xinhua
Online Reporter