Zambia Elections: President Lungu wins by 50.35%, opposition protests

Zambia

Results announced Saturday morning indicated that the opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) candidate, Hakainde Hichilema, is in the lead with 47, 706 votes followed by the incumbent Edgar Lungu with 41, 572 votes.

These were official results released by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) on Saturday morning from 8 out of the 156 constituencies.

The United National Independence Party (UNIP) candidate, Tilyenji Kaunda is third with 541 votes followed by the PAC candidate with 527 votes.

Total registered voters are 163, 520 and total votes cast are 94, 100. Total rejected votes are 2,567.

Thursday’s election recorded a 57.55% turnout.

#ZambiaElections Results of 8 Constituencies: Opposition UPND in the lead. pic.twitter.com/F6oy9VJkXL

— Ismail Akwei (@akweiakwei) August 13, 2016

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Friday

Zambia’s President Edgar Lungu was leading narrowly on Friday according to official results announced from three constituencies.

Lungu polled over 17,600 votes as against his main rival Hakainde Hichilema who took nearly 16,400 votes.

Delay in distributing electoral materials prolonged voting in some parts of the country to the early hours of Friday when counting had already started in most constituencies.

The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) announced on Friday afternoon that all polling stations in the country had officially closed and counting was still ongoing.

Thursday

Zambia’s general election was been characterised by long queues and a generally peaceful environment when the polls opened in the morning on Thursday.

This was the observation of the more than 120 European Union Observer Mission led by Chief Observer Cecily Kyenge who was happy about the voter turn-out.

On the part of the over a dozen African Union Observer Mission led by former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan, smooth voting was observed at various polling stations visited.

I witnessed the opening of a polling station and first ballots cast in several others early this morning in Lusaka pic.twitter.com/4r5bWMFnfq

— Goodluck E. Jonathan (@GEJonathan) August 11, 2016

Polls opened at 06:00 local time (04:00 GMT) for Zambia’s closely contested presidential election as well as voting in a referendum to amend the constitution.

Voters braved the cold weather to queue up hours earlier before the polls opened in the capital Lusaka and most parts of the country.

Nine candidates are in the running to be elected president including the incumbent President Edgar Lungu.

The election will go into a second round if none of the candidates secures more than 50% of the votes cast.

Photo Credit: Mwebantu