As of Saturday’s count, the turnout was at 56.32 percent, far above the 32 percent recorded early past year when Lungu narrowly won an election to fill the vacancy left by the death of then president Michael Sata.
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Lungu, 59, secured a five-year term with 50.4 percent of about 3.7 million valid votes cast, surpassing the 50 percent mark needed to avoid a runoff, Electoral Commission of Zambia Chairman Esau Chulu said Monday in the capital Lusaka.
Voter turnout now stood at 57.55 percent, far above the 32 percent recorded early past year when Lungu narrowly won an election to fill the vacancy left by the death of then president Michael Sata.
“We have confidence that the constitutional court will rise above board and declare the results a nullity”.
“By going to the commission he wanted to force the police to arrest him”, said Bwalya.
Election officials have also dismissed the allegations of rigging, saying that the slow publication of the results was due to the fact that the general elections featured votes for the president, parliament, mayors, local councilors and an amendment to the constitution on changes to the bill of rights.
The victor of Thursday’s election, for which 22 out of 156 constituencies have been counted, must get more than 50% of the vote to avoid a run-off.
The election was fought around the issues of rising unemployment, mine closures, power shortages and soaring food prices which Hichilema, an economist and businessman, blamed on Lungu’s mismanagement.
Mr Hichilema who spoke at a media briefing held at his house around 22:40hrs Sunday, said the G12 sheet is the only proscribed document which is the legal requirement used for recording ” the will of the people”.
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. Observer teams from the African Union, Southern African Development Community and Electoral Institute for Southern Africa said they were satisfied with the vote and there were only isolated incidents of violence.
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.
The opposition parties also accused the country’s electoral body of failing to manage the election properly after it failed to address the concerns raised in the anomalies seen in the presidential results.
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All parties have access to the raw voting data and may add up the results faster than the national commission.
