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Zambian opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema won a decisive victory. Photo: Rodger Bosch
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Longtime opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema is Zambia’s seventh Republican president, after defeating fierce rival Edgar Chagwa Lungu of the Patriotic Front last week.
Hichilema held the country’s top post after a landslide victory in which a majority of first-time voters and young people voted en masse on August 12.
The leader of the United Party for National Development won 2,810,757 votes against 1,814,201 for Lungu, the declaration of the winner having been made Monday around 3 am.
This is the sixth time he has run for president since taking over the opposition leadership from its founder, the late Anderson Mazoka, in 2006.
READ: Zambian opposition leader takes lead as anxious nation awaits final election results
Before this victory, Hichilema’s attempt at the top ended in disappointment.
He was third behind Levy Mwanawasa and Michael Sata in 2006, and recorded another loss to Rupiah Banda in 2008 in a by-presidential election. In 2011, he was again third behind Sata and Rupiah.
Former Zambian leader Rupiah Banda. Photo: File, AFP
Hichilema finished second in 2014 when President Sata passed away and a by-election was held, which Lungu won for the top post.
The economist turned politician was again at the polls in 2016, and finally succeeded this year.
As Hichilema takes control of a government riddled with corruption, divisions and unorthodox structures that run national affairs, through people often described as thugs, expectations are high to build its own legacy.
Now is the time for Hichilema to keep his promise to repair a fractured economy that has suffered the adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, and to create jobs and avenues of survival for an impoverished young population.
Zambians will also expect Hichilema to chart a new course and deliver the country from the tyrannical style that Lungu and his surrogates have used to stifle free speech.
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