THE atmosphere is becoming more charged with campaign frenzy ahead of the August 11 general elections.
Economically speaking, the campaigns have a big bearing on the future of the country in that if not well handled they have a tendency to scare away investors and tourists.
This calls for caution on the part of all political parties and their followers, after all who would want to preside over an economy dented by months of political mayhem.
It has taken Zambia many years to build investor confidence but that could be destroyed withinhours because it is more difficult to build than bring down.
All political leaders, especially those participating in the elections should ensure that they tame their cadres, who should be made to understand the importance of peace towards economic stability.
Like many people have said before, Zambia’s biggest commodity is peace, without which investors and tourists would be shunning Africa’s second largest copper-producing country.
Other than that, one hopes that the parties and their respective candidates will spend more time propagating issues concerning the economy in the manifestoes, written or otherwise.
The ruling party should spend more time to explain how it intends to augment the current economic development and the new programmes for the next five years.
It is encouraging that the party is soon expected to unveil its manifesto with which it intends to run the country in the next five years.
On the other hand the opposition parties, particularly candidates, should also spend more time and resources in explaining how they intend to grow the economy build upon the current economic growth.
They should tell the nation of the trajectories they intend to use to develop the country and state why people should buy that!
The Zambians should go into the 2016 general election fully armed with information on the kind of economic path the country is likely to take after the elections, should A, B, C or D win.
This is important for the parties and the nation as a whole, after all people are elected on the promise of what they are going to do should they be elected.
In that vein, the opposition parties, which have not come up with the manifestos or not publicised them, should do so to ensure that the voters are well-informed.
There are, of course, some economic issues which cannot be omitted by any party in their manifestoes and these include anything to do with the agricultural sector, mining, job opportunities, investments, tourism and many others.
Zambia is an agricultural country and therefore, the agro policy is significant to its economic future.
Parties and candidates should be able to convince the electorate how they need to advance the development of agriculture in the country.
Parties should be bold enough to tackle tough topics like agricultural subsidies, marketing and the dominant position of maize in the sector.
If, for instance, a party, for some good reasons, does not intend to continue with the Farmers Input Support Programme (FISP), it should be able to say so instead of ambushing the farmers, should that party be elected.
Similarly, there are hard topics on marketing, like, should the government continue getting involved  or should it leave everything to the private sector?
There are merits and demerits to both positions and the leaders should be able to state their positions.
What about the mining sector, is the country getting enough from there in terms of taxes? How do we balance between the need to get sufficient revenue from the sector on one hand and the need to ensure that investors generate enough for reinvestment?
These are real issues.
What about the investment incentive generally? Have we are providing enough? Perhaps we are too generous with the tax holiday incentives and a candidate would want to reduce or even do away with them?
The list of questions which beg answers from the parties and their candidates is endless. They should, therefore, not shy away from these issues.
The more time the parties and their candidates spend on these real issues the higher the chances of avoiding character assassinations and other talks which do not add value to the whole arrangement.
This will also provide an opportunity to the electorate to fairly, but wisely, assess the capacity and capability for the candidate to deliver economic development.
For now we will wait for more manifestos from the parties and individual candidates so that we see what they have to offer in terms of contribution toward economic development.
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