President Edgar Lungu has commissioned the 175 kilometer Mansa- Luwingu road which has been upgraded to bituminous standard at a cost of over US$200 million.

Speaking when he handed over the project, President Lungu said his government will continue to deliver on its promises which include providing a good road network to all parts of the country.

And speaking at the same event, Chinese ambassador to Zambia Young Youming said he is happy that Zambia and China have been cordially working together in infrastructure development.

Meanwhile, Works and Supply Minister Yamfwa Mukanga said the road will enhance economic activities in the area.

Six chiefs in Luwingu district in Northern have pledged to rally behind President Edgar Lungu in the August 11 polls because of his good leadership style.

Speaking on behalf of other chiefs, senior chieftainess Chungu of the Bemba people affirmed that Luwingu district has received its equal share of national development.

Chieftainess Chungu cited the 175 km Luwingu-Mansa road which he said will spur economic development in the district and connecting the area to neighbouring Luapula province.

ZANIS reports that the Chieftainess said this when she and senior chief Shimumbi and chiefs Chipalo, Chabula, Tungati and Katuta met President Lungu when he visited the district on his election campaign tour.

Chieftainess Chungu also commended President Lungu on his stance of campaigning for peace in the nation.

She commended government for maintain warm and cordial relationship with investors from China and other countries who have since invested in Luwingu district.

The chiefs condemned violence that is being perpetrated by some selfish politicians.

And President Lungu thanked the chiefs for rejecting the opposition.

Mr. Lungu assured the traditional leaders that government is committed to developing not only Luwingu but the entire country.

President Lungu later held private talks with the chiefs.
Meanwhile,

The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) has lifted the suspension on political campaigns in Lusaka and Namwala districts.

Briefing journalists in Lusaka this afternoon, ECZ Spokesperson Chris Akufuna says the commission hopes political parties will conduct their campaigns peacefully in the remaining period before the elections.

He has also disclosed that in response to the violence stemming from political party campaigns, the commission with the support from UNDP is partnering with the Dag Hammarskjold Institute for peace by organizing a series of conflict prevention/management workshops for the leadership of political parties at provincial and district levels.

And Mr. Akufuna has disclosed that the commission has been able to resolve the 2, 555 cases where NRC numbers and other personal details correlated very closely by using its field agents and that this also includes the 492 records that share full registration details.

He adds that the commission has also removed a further 10, 000 deceased voters from the voters register with the help of NAPSA.

Meanwhile,Mr Akufuna has dismissed as unfounded media reports suggesting that the commission is planning to postpone the elections.

And giving an update on the printing of ballot papers, Mr. Akufuna says printing of ballot papers for the Referendum, Mayoral, Presidential and Local government elections has been completed, while those for parliamentary elections will be completed tomorrow.

The 27th African Union (AU) Summit opened yesterday in Kigali , Rwanda with the launch of the first ever African e- Passport.

Minister of Foreign Harry Kalaba is representing President Edgar Lungu at the Summit which is scheduled to end today.

The launch of the e-passports was announced by Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC) Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma who also presented the first two passports to rotating AU chairperson Idriss Deby, President of Chad and Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

This is according to a statement availed to ZANIS by Ministry of Foreign Affairs Public Relations Officer Dorcas Chileshe.

Ms Chileshe said the first group of beneficiaries of the e-passport will include AU heads of state and government, Ministers of Foreign Affairs, and Permanent representatives of AU member states based at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa.

Ms Chileshe explained that AU members agreed to have a Pan-African passport in 2014 as part of the plan to facilitate the free movement of people within the continent.

She said the African leaders will discuss a wide range of issues especially on peace and security following the deadly violence that erupted in South Sudan between loyal forces to the two rival political camps.
Ms Chileshe disclosed that a new AU commission will also be elected to replace the one being led by Dlamini-Zuma since 2012.

Meanwhile, Mr. Kalaba said the AU Summit is significant as it saw the launch of the Pan African Passport which will enable Africans to move and trade freely on the continent.

He stated that Africa needs to take advantage of this initiative and ensure that they produce quality goods which will be marketable across the continent.

The theme of the two-day summit is “2016 African Year of Human Rights, with particular focus on the Rights of Women”.

The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) and the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) have paid glowing tribute to the ‘team Zambia’ which is monitoring the printing of the August 11 general election ballot papers in Dubai for its hard work and unity of purpose.

ECZ Commissioner David Matongo said in Dubai today that the tenacity for the team to work together despite belonging to different political parties and representing different organisations should be inculcated in all Zambians.

Mr. Matongo, who arrived in Dubai today, observed that the Commission was aware of the unity and the hard which the team, led by another ECZ Commissioner Emily Sikazwe, has exhibited during their work in Dubai.
“We have been following up through briefs which our colleagues who have been here brought back home and also newspapers and television Zambia have kept us informed,” he said.

He added that, “quite frankly, the peace you enjoy here as a group is the peace we would like to see back home as we proceed to the August 11elections.”

Mr. Matongo further pointed out that Zambians have no option but to maintain peace and unity during the elections period.

He noted that perceptions and suspicions among Zambians should be a thing of the past as they focus towards the election date, which is less than one month from now.

“I merely wish to commend you here for the job well done. I will lie if I said we have heard anything (back home) other than the hard work you have been doing. This is Zambian and I think we should maintain this,” he stressed.

And Mr. Matongo has disclosed that Lusaka and Namwala districts have experienced unprecedented peace during the 10 days during which political campaigns were suspended in the two areas.

He said this was an indication that the majority of Zambians were committing themselves to having peaceful elections in the country.

He was responding to a concern raised by the United Party for National Development (UPND) representative in Dubai, Jones Mulunga, who wanted to know what the ECZ was doing to maintain peace amidst signing of peace agreements among political parties in Zambia.

Mr. Matongo also said the signing of peace deals by political parties was part of the peace building process which the Electoral Commission of Zambia was employing towards elections.

“We believe that these elections will be peaceful. Let the best woman or man win. Ours is to deliver a credible election which will answer the wills of Zambians. Beyond that, we are not interested,” he said.

Meanwhile, a representative of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) Shemmy Makelele, who joined team Zambia in Dubai a few days ago, said he was impressed with the quality of work done by Al Ghurair Printing and Publishing Company which is printing the ballot papers.

Bishop Makelele, who is representing the Christian churches at the printing of ballot papers, said the spirit of unity, peace and love shown in team Zambia should be exercised in Zambia as well.

Representatives of political parties and civil society organisations have worked as a united force in the past two weeks and have described the whole printing process as transparent and of high quality.

The Al Ghurair Printing and Publishing Company is expected to complete the ballot paper printing process tomorrow.

Al Ghurair Printing and Publishing Company General Manager, Lakshmanan Ganapathy, told Mr. Matongo that the printing of national assembly ballot papers could be completed tomorrow.

Mr. Ganapathy said during the inspection of the printing and packaging process in the printing plant today, that the whole exercise of packing ballot paper boxes into pallets was likely be done by July 25, 2016.
He said by that time, the packaging of all the ballot papers and posters should be completed and ready for delivery to Zambia.

And the printing of local government ballot papers, which was at 84 percent on Sunday, has been completed.
Electoral Commission of Zambia Senior Public Relations Officer Sylvia Bwalya, said here today that only the printing of national assembly ballot papers was still on-going and the process was at 45 percent as of today.

Ms. Bwalya said the exercise has progressed very well and was on schedule.

The printing of ballot papers and posters for presidential, mayoral/council chairpersons, local government and referendum has all been completed.

UNITED Party for National Development (UPND) president Hakainde Hichilema must apologise to the country for insulting women by referring to them as sex objects, says Church of God Cathedral of Miracles senior pastor Naison Nyonyo.

Bishop Nyonyo said Mr Hichilema’s remarks that women must deny their husbands sex because they supported the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) should be the greatest insult to the women of Zambia.

He said it was unfortunate that the insult was coming from somebody aspiring to be the father of the nation in a few weeks time.

Bishop Nyonyo, who is also executive director for the Pentecostal Fellowship of Zambia, said Mr Hichilema must apologise unreservedly to the women of Zambia over the utterances.

“This should be known as the biggest insult to all the women in Zambia from a man aspiring to be the president of the nation. Mr Hichilema should apologise to the nation for the embarrassment he has caused himself, his wife, his sisters and all the women referred to because at his level he cannot be talking about sex in public in the manner he did,” Pastor Nyonyo said.

He said it was regrettable that a national leader should belittle sex in such a manner; especially that he claimed to want to lead the country on Biblical principles.

Bishop Nyonyo said Zambians must begin to learn the art of following true leadership by seeking God in their decisions in times of elections because it would be unfortunate to vote for a leader who enjoyed insults.

Meanwhile, UPND president Hakainde Hichilema’s inspiration to call for a black Friday is against all the Christian values that Zambia stands for, renowned gospel artist turned pastor BJ Ngosa has charged.

Mr Ngosa said that it was surprising that after the country had experienced a spate of ritual killings in different parts of the country Mr Hichilema would call for a black Friday.

He said that from the time President Edgar Lungu came into office, he had consistently urged citizens to turn to God in prayer and call on the name of Jesus Christ.

“From the time President Lungu came into power, all he has ever done is to call on all the people of Zambia to call on the name of the Lord.

“It is so amazing and so surprising that Mr Hichilema can today call the whole nation to a black Friday and after all we have gone through with the ritual killings,” he said.

PATRIOTIC Front (PF) central committee chairman for treasury Alexander Chikwanda has predicted that some opposition political party will be in the relics of history books and will go into a total oblivion after the August 11 general elections.

Mr Chikwanda said this when he met party members in Luwingu district during his tour of Northern Province that some opposition party was accustomed to losing elections and that after the PF emerges victorious in the August 11 elections, its memory would be confined to a museum and history books.

He said that the PF had no difficulties to point at its achievements of developmental projects not only in the province but across the country.

Mr Chikwanda said that the PF would have no time for settling political scores once elected back into office, which he said was confident about.

Mr Chikwanda said that unlike the opposition political parties, the PF would concentrate to building on its past five years’ achievements with a greater momentum.

“As a party, we are not short of where to point at in terms of developmental projects. We have seen here that we have many to point at and this is the case everywhere in the country. This is what the PF is. Development is what we know best. That is why when PF comes into power, which we will, we shall just have to consolidate with a greater momentum to build on what was achieved in the past five years.

“We will have no time for settling political scores like our friends. Some of them have been losing all the time and will not even merit a story in history or qualify to be relics in the museum instead. They will go into a total irreversible oblivion but we will teach them how to behave properly and inculcate a sense of social responsibility,’’ Mr Chikwanda said.

He implored PF members to continue campaigning and go out in numbers on the polling day to give President Edgar Lungu a 100 percent vote.