Zambia Decides: Edgar Lungu Wins Tight Presidential Election

Zambia’s incumbent President Edgar Lungu defeated main rival Hakainde Hichilema in a close fought presidential election, the southern Afric...

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Zambia’s incumbent President Edgar Lungu defeated main rival Hakainde Hichilema in a close fought presidential election, the southern African nation’s electoral commission has said.

Lungu, leader of the Patriotic Front, won 50.35 percent of the vote against 47.67 percent for Hichilema of the United Party for National Development, the commission said.

Mr Lungu needed more than 50% of the vote to be declared the outright winner – and he got over the threshold by less than one percentage point.

President Edgar Lungu

The victory comes after Zambia's main opposition party has alleged fraud in Thursday's presidential vote and called for a recount of votes in the capital Lusaka.

The UPND party, led by Hakainde Hichilema, has withdrawn from the ballot verification process.
President Edgar Lungu, of the governing PF party, holds a slim lead over his rival Mr Hichilema, with votes counted in more than 80% of constituencies.

The Patriotic Front party has rejected the allegations. Mr Lungu has called for calm and for the will of the people to be respected.

For the first time, a presidential candidate must win more than 50% of the vote to avoid a run-off. Mr Lungu won the last election by less than 28,000 votes. The UPND accused the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) of bias in favour of the PF.

Election officials denied this, saying the slow publication of the results was because there were five different votes on Thursday - for president, parliament, mayors, local councillors and an amendment to the constitution on changes to the bill of rights.

Final results: Lungu 1,860,877 Hichilema 1,760,347. - Online Sources

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