Zambian President Edgar Lungu on Monday was re-elected for another five-year term amid complaints from opposition political parties over malpractices in the results.
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President Edgar Lungu of the ruling Patriotic Front party received 1,860,877 votes, which is 50.35% of the total votes and therefore enough to avoid a runoff election, the election commission said.
About 6.7 million of the nation’s 16.2 million people registered to cast ballots for president, lawmakers, mayors and councilors.
One man who had gained entry into the server room was arrested by alert opposition party members, but the police have since released him.
“We are going to petition this election in court, it was full of irregularities, malpractices and vote stealing”, said Brian Mwiinga, spokesperson for Hichilema’s UPND.
A loud cheer went up from Mr Lungu’s supporters as the victory was announced at the electoral commission headquarters in the capital Lusaka.
The ECZ had planned to announce results to the election on Sunday, but said that the counting process had taken longer than expected due to a turnout of 56.22 percent, much higher than the 32 percent recorded in 2015. “In the normal set up they should have been released by Friday”, Hichilema, leader of the United Party for National Development (UPND) told reporters on Sunday.
The opposition, however, has launched a challenge to the result and will appear in court later in the week, Al Jazeera’s Page said.
“This is a very sad day for this country”.
Zambia’s incumbent President Edgar Lungu was on Monday declared the victor of a closely-fought election in the southern African country that the opposition claimed was rigged. “You have an electoral commission that is instigating instability in the country, conniving with the ruling party”.
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Recent constitutional changes require the victor to secure more than 50 percent of the vote, meaning a run-off is possible should neither candidate secure a majority in the first round.
