Zambia To Hold By-Election On January 20

Zambia's interim leader Guy Scott has announced a presidential by-election on January 20, and called for calm and tolerance amid concerns about a tense contest to succeed President Michael Sata, who died in office last month.

Mr Scott, who became the continent's first white leader since the 1994 end of apartheid in South Africa, said he hoped all contestants, both from the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) and opposition parties, would desist from violence.

Questions about the stability of Africa's second-biggest copper producer arose when Mr Scott fired a presidential front-runner, Edgar Lungu, as PF secretary-general on November 3, without explaining why.

He re-instated him a day later after violent street protests.

The interim President is barred from running for president because his parents were born in Scotland.

Source: News 24