Copper plays surprise role in Zambia presidential vote

[World News]

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A controversial decision to hike mining royalties in copper-rich Zambia has not only spooked investors but has become an unlikely presidential election issue in one of Africa's two biggest producers. Zambia tripled mining royalties to 20 percent from six percent on January 1, putting the government at loggerheads with mining firms already buckling under a fall in global commodity prices. "How can any knowledgeable government in today's world impose a tax like that?" a leading opposition presidential contender in Tuesday's election, Hakainde Hichilema, asked AFP in an interview. It is a question that the ruling Patriotic Front party's candidate, Edgar Lungu, has been wrestling with -- leading him to tell a TV interviewer "nothing is cast in stone".

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