After peaceful and hotly contested presidential election in Zambia, opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema has been declared the winner. During the campaign, Catholic bishops amplified calls for peaceful, credible and fair elections.
Incumbent President Edger Lungu has accepted defeat, igniting celebrations and paving the way for Hichilema’s swearing in as the country’s seventh President.
Just a day before the voting, Catholic Archbishop Ignatius Chama, the chairman of the Zambian Conference of Catholic Bishops urged the losing candidate to accept the outcome.
Ahead of the vote, the bishops had feared violence as tensions between the ruling Patriotic Front party and the opposition United Party for National Development increased ahead of the elections.
“Zambians have been praying for peace…the same God who they have been entreating for a peaceful atmosphere in the country will surely provide it,” said Chama.
Hichilema, a 59-year-old Seventh-day Adventist and businessman, secured 2.8 million votes in the election on 12 August, trouncing Lungu who garnered 1.8 million of ballots cast. Hichilema had campaigned on the slogan “faka pressure” (pressure for change).
The leader has inherited a troubled economy, after Lungu went on a massive infrastructure spending spree, in the country where more than half of the population live below the poverty line.
Hichilema has said he hopes to relieve poverty, taking advantage of the country’s immense natural resources such as copper.“It hurts to see people go to bed without food in this country,” said Hichilema.
The bishops said: “We congratulate him for his victory, a victory which all Zambian people share, since it’s a victory for democracy. As we transit from one government to another, we wish to call upon all Zambians and people of goodwill to exercise maximum restraint to all forms of provocation and remain peaceful with self,.. others, and with God.”
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