Zambia's Lungu faces tight election contest as debt crisis bites

Lusaka: Zambia's President Edgar Lungu will seek to fend off a perennial opposition challenger in a vote on Thursday that may be decided by frustrated young voters amid economic turmoil and a pending bailout for one of Africa's most indebted nations.

Investors are closely watching the Aug. 12 vote in the major copper producer which had the continent's first pandemic-era sovereign default in November. International Monetary Fund (IMF) support, already broadly agreed, is on hold until after the vote. So too is debt restructuring seen as an early test of a new global plan to ease poor countries' burden.