Zambia's president-elect inaugurated

Zambian President-elect Edgar Lungu was on Tuesday inaugurated for his five year mandated in office during a grand ceremony held in Lusaka, the country's capital.

Lungu, who was declared winner of last month's tightly contested elections, was inaugurated during the ceremony held at the packed National Heroes Stadium.

He was inaugurated alongside Vice-President Inonge Wina who was his running mate in the August 11 polls.

The ceremony, witnessed by presidents from the region such as Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and Botswana's Ian Nkhama as well as representatives of other countries, saw a huge number of people turning up to witness the inauguration.

China was represented by President Xi Jinping's Special Envoy, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Ma Biao.

In his inaugural address, Lungu commended Zambians for giving him and the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) another mandate to be in charge of the affairs of the country and promised that he will not let them down.

"You have placed on my shoulders a huge burden of responsibility and indeed I will ensure that at no time should you feel that you misplaced your confidence in electing me. I won't let you down. Even for those who didn't vote for me I won't let you down," he said.

His party, Lungu said, will continue on the same path of development agenda embarked upon during its first five years in office, and that he will push the frontiers of the country's national agenda.

Lungu also promised to establish a Commission of Inquiry to establish what caused violence that erupted in some parts of the country after the results were announced.

Zimbabwean President Mugabe, who spoke on behalf of the other leaders, congratulated Zambia for maintaining its tradition of holding peaceful and democratic elections.

The 92-year-old Zimbabwean leader said election observer missions have already affirmed that the elections were free and fair and that Lungu's victory was the "people's victory".

Lungu was supposed to have been inaugurated seven days after the August 11 polls, but the ceremony was suspended after the country's main opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema petitioned the presidential results in the Constitutional Court, citing malpractices in the vote count.

The petition was however dismissed by the court. Lungu polled 1,860,877 votes while Hichilema polled 1,760,347 votes. Endit