Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema is on course for a second term, election results published today showed, giving him a resounding victory in votes dogged by allegations of irregularities and a raid on the opposition.
Voting in the copper-rich southern African nation’s Thursday election was mainly peaceful but the opposition said its campaign had been hampered by intimidation and restrictions on its activities — worries echoed by observers, AFP reports.
Several figures from the main opposition alliance were still being held by police after they were arrested last week on claims of involvement in militia or insurgency activity which were disputed.
“The leader of the main opposition NRPUP party and former government minister Brian Mundubile is in a safe place and is under the protection of an international human rights body due to threats made against him,” the group told our correspondent. Administration
Mundubile, 55, received almost 38 percent of the vote, according to early electoral commission findings.
Hichilema got about 60 percent, not far from his 2021 polls result when he won his first five-year term.
The 64-year-old is expected to take the oath seven days after the official results are issued by the Commission, which is expected to happen by August 24, and if they are not disputed.
Supporters of his UPND party took to the streets of the capital Lusaka after the results were announced, singing and dancing in celebration.
“We are truly humbled by the trust you have reposed in us,” Hichilema said in a statement.
“To those citizens who supported the ideas put forward by our opponents, we hear you, and we will keep on working for you,” he stated.
“Now we must work harder than ever before to bring meaningful development to every single Zambian, in every corner of our country.
Clear favourite
Having taken Zambia through a dramatic economic turnaround and a restructuring of its debt, Hichilema went into the campaign the clear favourite.
He rebuilt relationships with foreign lenders and brought in millions of dollars in investment, particularly in the lucrative copper sector.
But while inflation has declined, the economic advantages have not been properly distributed for the more than 70 percent of the population surviving on less than $3 a day, according to World Bank figures.
His first tenure was marred by concerns over Zambia’s democratic space, with opposition parties and civil society organisations accusing his government of suppressing dissent.
International observers claimed the poll was plagued by opposition charges of intimidation, particularly by security personnel, and an unequal playing field with state-owned media coverage substantially slanted in favour of the ruling party.
They also denounced the electoral commission’s postponement of vote counting for roughly six hours Friday following claims of violence against polling officials and the alleged theft of ballot papers.
Mundubile’s NRPUP yesterday fiercely dismissed with “absolute disdain” official charges that its followers in police detention were engaging in “any insurgency, militia activity or any related conduct whatsoever”. State
Shots were fired in the raid and a legislator was hit, Mundubile claimed. His condition was not known.
Some of the detainees were involved in “military plans with foreign nationals and illegal military training camps posing a serious threat to State security”, the government said in a statement on Sunday.
Since then, officials have not commented on the case.
Yesterday, Mundubile also complained that the counting had been marred by anomalies and, without presenting any evidence, said that result records had been tampered with.
Zambia is Africa’s second largest copper producer and has a lengthy record of peaceful transfers of power at the ballot box with every change of president since the return to multiparty democracy in 1991 being through elections.
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