Edgar Chagwa Lungu (born 11 November 1956) is a Zambian politician who served as the sixth president of Zambia from 26 January 2015 to 24 August 2021.

In 2021, Lungu was defeated by long-time opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema (his 2015 and 2016 opponent), in that year's presidential election.

He subsequently underwent military officer training at Miltez in Kabwe under Zambia National Service (ZNS).

[6] At the 2011 general election, Lungu stood as the Patriotic Front candidate for Chawama constituency and won the parliamentary seat.

Guy Scott took over as Acting President, and Lungu was viewed as one of the main contenders to ultimately succeed Sata in a presidential by-election.

[15] On 30 November, Lungu was elected as President of the Patriotic Front at a national convention of the party held in Kabwe, Zambia.

[16][citation needed] On 20 January 2015, Lungu contested the presidential by-election and beat his closest rival Hakainde Hichilema of the United Party for National Development by a narrow majority of just 27,757 votes (1.66%), with just 32.36% of the registered electorate participating.

[1][citation needed] Lungu was sworn in as President of Zambia on 26 January 2015 at the National Heroes Stadium in the capital Lusaka.

18 October was officially registered as an annual public holiday in Zambia named the National Day of Prayer, Fasting, Repentance and Reconciliation.

[26] During his interim term, he met with French President François Hollande in France (early 2016), and with Pope Francis in the Vatican (calling it an "experience of a lifetime").

[27][28][citation needed] In December 2019, Lungu expressed anti-LGBT rhetoric, stating "Even animals don't do it, so why should we be forced to do it?...

[32] After the 2021 election, Edgar Lungu decided to retire from active politics,[33] leaving Given Lubinda as the Patriotic Front's acting president.

[33][35] However, there was a controversial extraordinary general conference that had taken place earlier that October in which Miles Sampa was declared the president of the Patriotic Front (PF) party, defeating 7 other aspirants for the same position.

[37][38] After Lubinda gave back the PF presidential title to Lungu (thereby demoting himself to vice-president,[39][40]) the party remained with two factions (with Sampa as the leader of the other one).

[44] On top of this battle with Miles Sampa over who is the rightful PF leader, there is an ongoing and contentious issue of the Presidential eligibility of Edgar Lungu due to the fact that he was previously elected twice (in January 2015 and August 2016) to be the president of Zambia.

[55] Against All Odds, a biography of Lungu by the Zambian journalist and senior diplomat Anthony Mukwita, was published by Partridge Africa on 5 January 2017.