By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Zambia has joined the exclusive club of African countries to boot out an incompetent president and elect an opponent with hopes for efficient management of resources to make life better, in a vote powered by the youth.
Opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema was on Monday declared the winner of last week’s bitterly contested presidential election, soaring past President Edgar Lungu by a landslide of more than a million votes.
Elections are mostly rigged and the results contested on the continent where incumbents go to lengths to manipulate the process and to cheat and kill to remain in the power.
Ghana was the first country in Africa to become independent in 1957 and to practise multiparty democracy not supervised by colonialists.
The few exceptions in the nearly three decades where defeated incumbents have vacated office for the opponent include
South Africa 1994 – Nelson Mandela beat Frederik de Klerk
Nigeria 2015 – Muhammadu Buhari won against Goodluck Jonathan
The Gambia 2016 – Adama Barrow defeated Yahya Jammeh
Ghana 2016 – Nana Akufo-Addo beat John Mahama
The BBC reports that it was Hichilema’s sixth attempt at winning the presidency in Zambia. His supporters have been celebrating on the streets of the capital, Lusaka.
Lungu has accepted defeat and congratulated Hichilema.
Earlier, he alleged that the elections were not free and fair and said ruling party election officials had been chased from polling stations, leaving votes unprotected.
In its final tally, the electoral commission said Hichilema had won 2,810,777 votes to Lungu’s 1,814,201 in Thursday’s election. There were seven million registered voters.
The huge margin of victory means there is no need for a run-off.
“I therefore declare that the said Hichilema to be president of Zambia,” commission chairman Esau Chulu announced at the results centre in Lusaka.
Lungu’s six-year rule was criticised for alleged human rights abuses, corruption, a failing economy and massive unemployment.
Correspondents say Hichilema, 59, tapped into widespread dissatisfaction among voters. He now faces the daunting challenge of turning around the country’s economic fortunes.
A wave of change driven by youths
Celebrations which started on Sunday continued until sunrise as Zambia was painted red by supporters of Hichilema, according to the BBC.
There’s no doubt that political winds of change were ushered in by young people who are often accused of being reluctant to vote. They turned up in high numbers and generally rejected Lungu.
“We want jobs, young people want jobs,” chanted throngs of people as they filled the streets of the capital shortly after Hichilema was declared the seventh president of this copper-rich nation.
There’s no doubt that Hichilema will inherit the rot and will attempt to clean up corruption left by his predecessor.
Who is Hakainde Hichilema?
Hichilema was born into humble beginnings in the southern district of Monze.
He managed to get a scholarship to the University of Zambia, and later graduated with an MBA degree from the University of Birmingham in the UK.
He went on to become one of Zambia’s richest men, with business interests in finance, ranching, property, healthcare and tourism.
He has described himself as an ordinary “cattle boy” and has contested and lost every election held in Zambia since 2006. However, each time he has increased his share of the vote.
In 2016, Hichilema said the election was stolen from him after he lost to Lungu by just 100,000 votes.
Hichilema has faced problems with authorities since entering politics.
After the 2016 election, he was charged with treason for allegedly failing to give way to the presidential motorcade. He spent four months in a maximum-security jail before the charges were dropped.