The President of Zambia, Edgar Lungu, has been given the go-ahead to stand for another term.
The country’s Constitutional Court has ruled that he can stand for re-election in August. A court challenge had been brought saying Lungu could not run as this would be his third term.
Lungu first became President in 2015 when he won a presidential by-election to take over from Michael Sata, who had died. Lungu then won a full term in his own right in 2016. Some have been arguing that completing Sata’s term counted as a term, meaning that Lungu has already served two terms, making him constitutionally ineligible to stand for another. However, this was rejected by the court.
The ruling comes in the midst of a severe economic crisis in Zambia. The country has defaulted on its sovereign debt and has approached the International Monetary Fund for assistance. The country has already been struggling for some time as the price of its primary export, copper, has been dropping, but this was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
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