Zambia’s newly elected president Hakainde Hichilema has promised to rebuild the ailing economy and alleviate poverty as he was sworn in following an election hailed as a milestone for African opposition movements.
Hichilema also vowed to restore respect for human rights and liberties eroded under his predecessor.
In his sixth bid for the presidency, Hichilema defeated the incumbent Edgar Lungu, 64, by almost one million votes a landslide spurred by economic hardship and restricted freedoms under the previous regime.
The victory is the 17th opposition win in sub-Saharan Africa since 2015 and was achieved despite restricted campaigning and suspected rigging in favour of Lungu’s party.
“We showed the world the resilience of our democracy,” Hichilema exclaimed in a face mask, dark suit and bright red tie.
Lungu and his rival were neck-and-neck in both a snap election in 2015 and in polls in 2016.
But the incumbent’s popularity was sapped by unsustainable infrastructure spending that plunged the copper-rich southern African nation of over 18 million into debt default.
The local kwacha currency plummeted and inflation rose to more than 24 percent, rendering basic goods unaffordable in a country where more than half the population lived in poverty before the pandemic.
