The main opposition party, UPND, has alleged that the electoral commission worked in conjunction with the ruling party to rig the elections in favor of Mr. Lungu.
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Zambia’s President Edgar Lungu has been re-elected, according to official results.
Edgar Lungu (C, in black suit), leader of the Patriotic Front party (PF), dances before addressing his supporters during a rally ahead of Thursday’s presidential elections in the capital, Lusaka, Zambia August 10, 2016.
He added that the party was confident that the constitutional court would “rise above board and declare the results a nullity”.
Meanwhile, the Electoral Commission of Zambia yesterday afternoon held an urgent meeting with all presidential candidates, raising anxiety among stakeholders.
Initially, Isaac told local and worldwide observers that results would start being announced at 14:00 hours.
Zambian President Edgar Lungu has been re-elected for a five-year term after he was declared victor by the electoral body after general elections held last Thursday. “My answer is no”, Hichilema said.
Lungu narrowly beat Hichilema by less than 28 000 votes in last year’s presidential election called after the death of President Michael Sata.
Emanuel Phiri, 48, a taxi driver, said he believed Lungu was the popular choice of the Zambian people.
Both the Electoral Commission and the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) have since rejected Hichilema’s claims, stating that the opposition leader was making inflammatory statements in a bid to rid himself of frustrations.
Monitors from the European Union said that, while the voting itself went smoothly on Election Day, campaigning had been “hindered by several factors”.
The UPND said on Saturday that data from its own parallel counting system showed Hichilema beating Lungu “with a clear margin”, based on about 80 percent of votes counted.
The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) delayed announcing the first results on Friday, saying audits were taking longer than expected mainly due to a large voter turnout.
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Jack Mwiimbu, the party’s chair for legal said the process to commence the petitioning of the results will commence this week and will be done concurrently with a judicial review process.
