Eye on the Continent: Who’s to take the Zambian presidency?

After the passing of President Michael Sata on the 28^th of October in London where he was receiving medical treatment the Vice President, Mr. Guy Scott took office. This was a formality taken in order to organize elections within 90 days as the constitution stipulates.

The elections took place on the 20^th of January and Mr. Scott was not allowed to contest the elections because he has a limited trait of Zambian descent. A section of Zambia’s constitution known as The Indigenous clause prohibited Mr. Scott because his parents were not born in Zambia.

With this, a struggle for Sata’s succession started because the natural successor could not run. Moreover this situation allowed the emergence of different factions with each of them having preferences to succeed Mr. Sata. Amongst the candidates were Mr. Sata’s wife Christine Kaseba, one of his sons and the Minister of Justice and Defense,  Mr. Edgar Lungu who won the internal race and became the presidential candidate for The Patriotic Front of Zambia. The campaign for the presidency of the country was reported to be peaceful with the two candidates most likely to win; Mr. Edgar Lungu and Mr Hakainde Hichilema dominating.

The country will most likely continue to be ruled by the Patriotic Front led by Edgar Lungu. Mr Lungu who durig his campaign declared his intention to continue to rule the country with the spirit of continuity, because he was of the belief that under the leadership of Mr. Sata some creditable economic reforms were implemented. As one of his electoral promises Mr. Lungu said he will increase the mining taxes in order to help the ordinary citizens to be able to benefit from the mining sector (where Zambia is the largest producer of copper in Africa) revenue whereas Mr. Hichilema said the economy itself needs to be revamped and bases his strategy on doing so.