Lungu, who took office in January 2015 after the death of President Michael Sata, won a tight race over Hichilema in an election past year.
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Lungu was declared victor of the tightly contested election after polling 1,860,877 votes (50.35 percent) from all the 156 constituencies, while his main challenger Hakainde Hichilema of the United Party for National Development (UPND) polled 1,760,347 votes.
Lungu led with 669,960 votes against Hichilema’s 644,132 after 69 of the country’s 156 constituencies in Thursday’s vote had been collated, the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) told reporters on Sunday.
“We have overwhelming evidence of manipulations in the figures”.
With emotions running high as parties await the election 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.
The opposition party quickly rejected the result, claiming the electoral commission had colluded to rig the vote against its candidate.
The United National Independence Party (UNIP) which was set up by Zambia’s founding president Kenneth Kaunda also said it would challenge the results.
“They have taken long to release the results”.
While people voted in a peaceful manner, the run-up to the elections was marred by violence between Lungu’s supporters and those of the main challenger. The other seven presidential candidates are far behind.
And Hichilema noted that it would not do for PF functionaries to play psychological warfare tactics in a bid to convince Zambians that Lungu was on the verge of retaining the Republican presidency.
The electoral commission had initially said the results would be announced within 48 hours of the close of voting. “Zambia has prevailed as a peaceful nation and we anticipate it will continue like this”.
The additional results were from the 12 constituencies of Kabombo, Membeshi, Chipata Central, Lusaka Central, Lunga, Pemba, Luangeni, Chifubu, Solwezi East, Manyinga, Malole, and Nalikwanda.
“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.
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Last year’s election was held because President Michael Sata died in office, the second time a serving leader has died in Zambia in the past five years.
