Nothing is impossible – Raila congratulates Zambia’s opposition leader for winning presidency after six attempts
ODM leader Raila Odinga has sent a congratulatory message to Zambia opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema after he won the recently concluded elections by a landslide.
In a message Raila shared on Monday, August 16 through his social media pages, the ODM leader congratulated Hachilema for scooping the presidency during an election conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I take this earliest opportunity to congratulate my friend Hakainde Hichilema and the United Party of National Development (UPND) of Zambia for the decisive victory in the presidential election,” Raila said on Monday, August 16.
“Amidst an unprecedented public health challenge, the Zambian people have made Africa proud for conducting a successful election,” Raila added.
The ODM leader further pointed out that a free, fair, credible and verifiable election always certainly returns the will of the people.
“It is my hope that this election strengthens the democratic life of your Zambia, brings more prosperity to the people and reminds fellow Africans elsewhere that nothing is impossible. I wish you the best of luck in the days and years ahead,” Raila said.
President elect Hichilema secured a stunning landslide victory on Monday over incumbent Edgar Lungu in Zambia’s presidential election.
The electoral commission said Hichilema got 2,810,777 votes against Lungu’s 1,814,201, with all but one of the 156 constituencies counted.
“I therefore declare that the said Hichilema to be president of Zambia,” electoral commission chairman, Esau Chulu, said in a packed results centre in the capital Lusaka.
That would make the third time that power has shifted peacefully from a ruling party to the opposition since the southern African country’s independence from Britain in 1964.
Across Zambia, celebrations broke out in the streets as Hichilema’s supporters wearing the red and yellow of his United Party for National Development (UPND) danced and sang, while drivers honk their horns.
Celebrations could be short-lived however: Zambia is in dire financial straits, and it became the continent’s first pandemic-era sovereign default in November after failing to keep up with its international debt payments.
