Zambia’s presidential poll results neck-and-neck

LUSAKA, Saturday (AFP)

Opposition candidate Michael Sata held a slim lead over acting President Rupia Banda in Zambia’s presidential vote early Saturday as election officials continued to count ballots.

Sata had 40 percent of the vote compared to 38 percent for Banda in 102 of 150 constituencies, giving him a lead of just 27,019 ballots, said Electoral Commission of Zambia chairwoman Florence Mumba. The Patriotic Front (PF) leader, who has accused Banda’s ruling Multiparty Movement for Democracy (MMD) of seeking to rig the vote, had a wider earlier in the tally but his lead narrowed as the counting progressed. “We are very confident to the extent of being sure,” the MMD’s Akashambatwa Mbikusita-Lewanika told AFP after the latest tally.

“The electoral results have followed an established pattern and we are privy to the results at the polling stations so there are no surprises,” he said. Final results were expected later Saturday. Tense allegations of vote rigging resurfaced late Friday with the PF accusing the ruling party of election fraud and of “deliberately provoking” it and Zambian citizens before the final vote was verified. This was after an MMD official predicted on national television that Banda would win by some 60 000 votes, which PF spokesman Given Lubinda claimed was meant to “preempt their planned actions to manipulate these election results”. But ruling party spokesman Tetama Shimba dismissed the claims as petty, saying that the prediction was based on polling station totals which had been posted at each vote station and were in the hands of all political parties. Although observers and election officials said voting went smoothly Thursday, police and soldiers remained on alert for possible violence after the hotly contested race was announced.