Zambian incumbent President Levy Mwanawasa has won another term in the polls on September 28 after defeating his closest rival Michael Sata, leader of the Patriotic Front. It is a result of Mwanawasa's political achievement and the opposition's campaign failure.

Since Mwanawasa's first election into office in December 2001, he has been pursuing a prudent economic policy, making efforts to promote agricultural production and encourage foreign investment. The policy has yielded good results, especially in copper production which dominates Zambia's economy.

In recent years, Zambia's copper output has gradually picked up due to more foreign investment, good management, advanced technology and increasing prices at the international market. The country produced 440,000 tons of copper last year and the output is expected to climb back to the historical high of 700,000 tons by 2010.

Mwanawasa also encourages agricultural development by providing subsidized fertilizer to farmers. The maize purchase of his government from the farmers in the bumper harvest years wins wide support.

In addition, Mwanawasa's campaign against corruption and his adoption of pragmatic economic policies are hailed by donors and international monetary institutions. Zambia attained the completion point of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative in April last year, enable it to receive debt relief of an estimated 135 million US dollars per year over the next two decades.

The African nation is also among the 18 African countries that are qualified for the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative. Its debt burden estimated at US$7.2 billion at the end of 2004 has been cut to about US$500 million.

Thanks to the revival of copper industry, the writing off of foreign debts and prudent financial policy, Zambia's economy has grown by about five percent annually in recently years. Its annual inflation rate dropped to eight percent, the lowest in 30 years.

Against such a backdrop, Zambian voters support incumbent President Mwanawasa, believing he can continue to spur economic growth and improve their education, health care and living standard.

At the same time, Sata from the opposition threatened to chase away foreign investors and traders in his campaign and vowed to get jobs and property back from foreigners for Zambians. The veteran politician failed to incite xenophobe to win votes and his threat to chase away foreign investors and businessmen were criticized by many.

Sata's other pledges such as redistribution of mine property and quick creation of jobs, were described as lies with sugar. Many voters do not believe in him and give their votes to Mwanawasa.

The other major opposition party is the United Party for National Development (UPND) which has been the most powerful group led by Anderson Mazoka.

In March, the UPND and the Forum for Democracy and Development and the United National Independent Party formed the United Democratic Alliance to challenge Mwanawasa in the elections. However, the death of Mazoka in May dragged the UPND into a power struggle.

Although the successor Hakainde Hichilema performs unexpectedly well in the elections, but he is not as strong as his predecessor Mazoka.

Analysts say, however, Mwanawasa still faces great challenges in his second tenure as Zambian economy has been improving but the authorities failed to reduce poverty significantly. Two thirds of Zambia's 11 million population still live on less than US$ one per day.

(Xinhua News Agency October 3, 2006)