Zambians voting as president bids for second term

Zambians voted Thursday in a general election in which President Hakainde Hichilema is seeking a second term, with more than eight million voters registered. Fourteen candidates are on the presidential ballot, but the contest is widely viewed as primarily a two-way race between Hichilema and Brian Mundubile, a former minister in the Patriotic Front government that ruled from 2011 to 2021, whose support draws partly from backers of the late former President Edgar Lungu. Lungu died more than a year ago and remains unburied in South Africa amid a dispute between his family and Hichilema. Voters cited unemployment and the cost of living as major concerns, and a candidate needs more than 50% of the vote to win outright, otherwise a run-off must be held within 37 days.