Since 2000, the elections in Zambia have been won with some deception. In today’s presidential elections, the fraud is already evident, according to the opposition. The outgoing president Egdar Lungu, 64, who has chewed politics since he was very young, is no longer popular and violence has been the hallmark of the election campaign. Yet he is confident of beating his rival Hakainde Hichilema, 59 years old, a “self-made man”.
However, it must be said that “HH”, as they call him in Zambia, in the past he had already run five times without success, even if the last time he went head to head and the following year he was sent to jail. for treason, only to be exonerated.
The seven million voters of this landlocked country in southern Africa are called to choose from 16 candidates, but according to polls, the vote will boil down to a ballot between the outgoing president and his rival facing him for the third time. .
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Who is Edgar Lungu, the outgoing president
Lungu has been on the permanent campaign since he took office in 2016, without considering the fact that he has ruled since 2014 when, after the death of the previous head of state, the Patriotic Front (Pf) named him as his successor.
The Electoral Commission did the rest by increasing the number of voters in key areas in order to find 350 thousand ballots in favor of the Pf and to steal 70 thousand from the United Party for National Development (UPND) and without investigating 20 thousand voters from Malawi who they collected money in exchange for votes for the current head of state. This is the picture photographed by the Upnd.
Lungu, however, is sure of the verdict even if in 2016 he won with 50.35% of the votes, while Hichilema had stopped at 47.6%. And this time there is also Covid-19 in the way to complicate the plans of the two contenders.
Zambia, the first country in default of the Covid era
The real needle of the budget will be the economic crisis in one of the most indebted countries in Africa. “Investors say there is a chance to restructure the debt with HH,” analysts told the agency Reuters.
The outgoing leader Lungo, on the other hand, has always opposed the policy of the International Monetary Fund, even though he signed an agreement last May. During the election campaign, promises are cheap, but 30% and 40% of the revenues are interest on the debt and Zambia is one of the most insolvent nations in all of Africa. Last year it was the first country to declare foreign debt default in the Covid era.
“I vote for my work, not them,” he told the Bbc a 25-year-old girl who hasn’t had a job since 2017. And there are 50,000 teachers, 17,000 nurses and 500 doctors who are supposed to be working at school or hospital and instead are at home.
Those entitled to vote for the most part are under the age of 35 and second Afrobarometer, 23% is in favor of Lungu, 25% of HH. The others have no intention of voting at all.
Copper has made Zambia’s fortune, but despite the fact that the mines are bringing about growth, for the first time since 1998 the country is in recession. “After 47 of bad governance, I’m transforming the country, take a look,” Lungu says. But people reply: “Let’s not eat the streets”.
The army lines up in the streets
Meanwhile Lungu has ordered the military to patrol Lusaka, the capital, and the most important cities. At least two people were killed, apparently by people from the UPND, during the election campaign and this made the head of state’s game play.
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The Chinese in Zambia
Then there is another factor that can turn the tables: the Chinese presence. For decades, Beijing has had close relations with the African state: it has bought a third of the debt, invested in agriculture and owns some mines.
Some non-governmental organizations speak of a kind of new neo-colonialism. “I work in the industry, at the end of the month I have my salary and I can easily buy what my family needs”, retorts a worker who works for a Chinese company. He doesn’t care if the Chinese take everything, he just needs to have food.
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