Lusaka: Zambia began voting on Thursday in a dispute between President Edgar Lungus and the main opposition rival, Hakainde Hichilema, who looked too tight to be called and came in the midst of increasing debt and economy.
Polls opened at 6 am (0400 GMT) with a long queue seen at the voting gate in the capital of Lusaka, which can point to a big picture in Africa.
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At a voter station on the outskirts of Kabwata Lusaka, the first time Ben Mulenga, 19, said he had arrived two and a half hours before the voting began because he anticipated a long queue.
“Things that occur in our country, including the bad conditions of the economy and the high level of unemployment need to be addressed,” said Mulenga, a student at the University of Zambia.
LONGE was one of the earliest voters, after bringing the time of voting.
Wearing a black leather jacket and a white, laled face mask, accompanied by his wife, waved into a crowd cheering when he went to his accompaniment.
“We won, otherwise I would not be in a race if we did not win,” Lungus told reporters shortly after he chose at a polling station in Chawama City in Lusaka.
About 54% of registered voters are 34 or younger, statistics from the Zambia Election Commission (ECZ) show.
It could help Hichilema, who faced the laple for the third time and had placed the economy in front and the campaign center, said political analyst.
In November, Zambia became the first African country to default on its debt during the Coronavirus pandemic.
This will be among the economic growth no later than the continent this year, the estimated international monetary fund (IMF).
Zambia owes more than $ 12 billion to an external creditor and spends 30% -40% of its income on interest payments on its debt, the S & P Global Estimate credit rating company.
In the office since 2015, the 64-year-old LONG is narrowly defeated Hichilema, CEO of the accounting company before entering politics, in the election debated the following year.
The President has tied up new roads, airport and energy projects that he has watched as laying the foundation for economic development and growth.
His encouragement for greater state control over the mining sector, an approach that has triggered concerns of resource nationalism among international investors, will create employment, he said.
“The challenges we have are economics and we do our best to ensure that challenges are faced,” Lungi said during the virtual campaign rally last Wednesday.
But so far the Royal Infrastructure financed by debt failed to pay economic dividends, and unemployment remained high.
It has made it open to attack from Hichilema.
“So much money is borrowed at a very high cost and this is a frustrating development effort,” Hichilema, known as HH, said at a press conference on Wednesday.