2015-01-21 12:25:00

Education, health, employment key issues in Zambia election


(Vatican Radio) Voters in Zambia have cast their ballots in a by-election to choose a replacement for the late President Michael Sata, who died in October of last year in London, while receiving treatment for an unspecified illness. The southern African nation has 5.1 million registered voters, out of a total population of about 15 million people. Projections showed roughly 35% of registered voters presented themselves at polling stations, with many people citing severe weather as a factor in the turn-out.

A native of the capital, Lusaka, and former head of Vatican Radio’s English for Africa service, Bishop Moses Hamungole of Monze diocese in Zambia told Vatican Radio the elections were orderly and regular in Lusaka, where he cast his ballot. “The elections were peaceful, despite hiccoughs here and there,” such as stations opening late or ballots not being on hand, he said. “No serious instances of violence were reported,” he continued.

Click below to hear our conversation with Bishop Moses Hamungole of Monze, Zambia

Bishop Hamungole also explained that among the issues of particular concern for the Catholic Church in this election and looking forward to the general elections scheduled for 2016, are education and other social services, especially health care, to which the Church has made and continues to make significant contributions. “Education,” he said, “has been, from the time of the early missionaries – along with health [care] – among the key areas to which the Church – the Catholic Church in particular, and other Churches, have really paid attention.”

“When we talk of health service provision, we are talking of the Christian Churches providing up to 40% of the health care in the whole country of Zambia. The [Catholic] Bishops’ Conference is also particularly interested in the field of education, to the point that the Catholic Church has established a Catholic university in Zambia, which is still in its initial stages, but has been running already for the last four or five years, now,” Bishop Hamungole explained.

Both main contenders in the special election, Edgar Lungu from the governing Patriotic Front and Hakainde Hichilema from the United Party for National Development, made campaign promises to improve the country’s education system.

The winner will serve the remaining 18 months of the late president’s term.








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