Zambia’s President Edgar Lungu defeated his main rival Hakainde Hichilema in a close fought presidential election, the southern African nation’s electoral commission said on Monday.
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He added that the party was confident that the constitutional court would “rise above board and declare the results a nullity”.
But Hichilema told a separate media briefing his party wanted a recount of votes in Lusaka district “for the sake of free, fair, credible and transparent elections”.
Meanwhile, the opposition UPND are protesting the outcome of the election saying it was rigged.
Hichilema had on Sunday charged that unexplained delays in releasing the results were a clear sign of fraud to produce a win for Lungu’s Patriotic Front (PF).
UPND candidate Hichikema told reporters at the same news conference that the Electoral Commission of Zambia was turning a blind eye to allegedly falsified results.
With 132 out of 156 constituencies counted, Lungu was on Monday slightly ahead with 1 454 165 votes to Hichilema’s 1 383 594. However, the election campaign was marred by weeks of clashes between opposition and government supporters.
The UPND reported that data from its own counting system had shown that Hichilema had beaten Lungu, based on approximately 80% of the votes counted.
Lungu, a 59-year-old lawyer, in his campaign pledged to improve energy supply, build more roads and universities and diversify the economy away from copper.
Emanuel Phiri, 48, a taxi driver, said he believed Lungu was the popular choice of the Zambian people.
Lungu was elected in January 2015 after the death of the incumbent president, Michael Sata. She further said there should be no interruption in the electronic transmission of the election results.
With emotions running high as parties awaited results, the ECZ would need to clearly demonstrate it was acting to resolve complaints to retain the confidence of the electorate, political analyst Lee Habasonda of the University of Zambia said.
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Thursday’s elections saw Zambians choosing members of parliament, local councilors and mayors, as well as voting in a constitutional referendum to amend the nation’s bill of rights.
