President Lungu confident of being re-elected

PRESIDENT Lungu says he is confident that he will win this year’s presidential election because he has delivered most of the promises he and the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) made to the people of Zambia.
The President said here on Tuesday in interviews with French media that he is confident that Zambians will vote for him because he has not let them down.
“I am coming back. I am confident that the people of Zambia will elect me again on the basis of the promises we made. I think I have walked the talk because I have delivered many of the projects I inherited from my predecessor President Sata,” he said.

The President was speaking at Le Meurice Hotel in Paris, France, in separate interviews with French television channel France 24 and Radio France International.
Radio France International English service presenter Laura-Angela Bagnetto and France 24 producer and presenter Georja Calvin-Smith interviewed the President one after the other.
President Lungu said Zambia has one of the most credible electoral systems and that the country is going to hold free and fair elections.
The presidential, parliamentary, mayoral and local government elections are scheduled for August 11.

On the economic front, the President said the country had embarked on a robust diversification of its economy from copper to agriculture and other sectors.
President Lungu, who looked relaxed despite the tight schedule he had just cleared, said Zambia is looking for investment in the energy sector because it has realised that it is unsafe to depend on hydro-electricity.
He said it has not been easy to diversify because of the country’s decades-long dependence on copper.
The President said the effects of climate change have created a need for the government to look at alternative energy.
He said the government has not backtracked from economically viable tariffs but wants to do it slowly so that it does not adversely affect vulnerable domestic and commercial consumers.
“Until we reach commercial levels where investors will be attracted to invest in the sector we will do it gradually to protect the vulnerable consumers,” the President said.
And President Lungu has appealed to the media to report truthfully.

He said his government had not stopped any journalists from covering or interviewing him.
President Lungu was responding to concerns by Mrs Calvin-Smith that it was not easy for journalists to work freely in Zambia.
And the President described his meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican City last week as an experience of a lifetime.
President Lungu has just wound up his three-day official visit to France at the invitation of President Francois Hollande.

Zambia Daily Mail