With 132 of Zambia’s 156 constituencies counted, President Edgar Lungu of the ruling Patriotic Front party had 1,454,165 votes while Hakainde Hichilema of the opposition United Party for National Development had 1,383,594 votes, according to election officials.
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President Edgar Lungu of the Patriotic Front (PF) and leading challenger Hakainde Hichilema were predicted to be in a close race for power as Zambia struggles with a weakening economy. “We have every hope that the Constitutional Court of this country will rise above this and declare these elections as annulled because of the various violations”.
Early results announced on Saturday from only eight constituencies had put Hichilema ahead.
Mr Hichilema described this election as a sham which did not reflect the will of the people.
Cecile Kyenge, a European Union observer of the election, said the commission was professional in its preparations for the vote, but did not address any perceived bias by state-run media toward the incumbent candidate. He was elected president in 2015 to complete the term left vacant left by late president Michael Chilufya Sata who died in a London hospital in October 2014.
The possibility of a protracted dispute over the result may distract attention from policy making and delay an International Monetary Fund deal, John Ashbourne, a London-based economist at Capital Economics, said in e-mailed note. Lungu is Zambia’s sixth president since it gained its independence in 1964. He won last year’s by election by only 27,000 votes, with 48.3% of the vote.
Constitutional changes now require the victor to have more than 50 percent of the vote, and a re-run would be called if there is no clear majority.
Gilles Kasongo, of the Zambia Election Information Centre, a coalition of civil society organisations focusing on governance and electoral procedure, said that several flaws in the election process made it hard to accept that it was a fair victory.
Hichilema has said there have been “irregularities” in the vote counting and has demanded a recount in the district of Lusaka, home to the country’s capital.
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All parties have access to the raw voting data and may add up the results faster than the national commission.
