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Zambian leader says confident of winning election

Xinhua, August 10, 2016 Adjust font size:

Zambian President Edgar Lungu on Wednesday said it will be easy for him to win the elections because he has no formidable opposition.

Lungu, who is standing on the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) ticket as a presidential candidate 18 months after he won last year's presidential election which saw him win by less than 28,000 votes, said his opponents in the August 11 polls have nothing new they were promising the voters.

However, for the first time, a candidate must win by more than 50 percent of the vote or there is a re-run following the amendment of the constitution.

In a special live interview on HOT FM radio which was also relayed on several radio stations across the country, the Zambian leader expressed confidence of emerging winner, adding that all the opponents in Thursday's election were not formidable.

"Have you seen any formidable opponents? The other guys on the table are people who have been known. They are not offering anything knew. I do not see any challenger in this election," Lungu said when the interviewer asked him about his opponents.

"The so-called front runners are simply businessmen who want to revive their businesses. Zambians know all of us very well and know that the people that are challenging me have nothing to offer," he added.

There are nine presidential candidates but the main contenders are Lungu and main opposition challenger Hakainde Hichilema of the United Party for National Development (UPND), who came second in last year's presidential election.

He said Zambians have assessed all the presidential candidates, adding that he was the only candidate who could take the country forward, adding that his opponents have nothing new to offer.

He said the election will be a revolution against the opposition political parties who have failed to see what the ruling party has done in the last five years. Endit