/ 28 September 2006

Zambia votes in tight presidential race

Zambia went to the polls on Thursday to elect a new president after a razor-tight race pitting the internationally respected incumbent against a fiery populist who has promised to give impoverished Zambians a bigger share of their nation’s copper riches.

Voters began gathering well before dawn and stood patiently outside polling stations in downtown Lusaka, slowly filing in as voting officially began after 6am (4am GMT).

President Levy Mwanawasa (58) is running for a second and final five-year term and has urged Zambians to back his policies of promoting investment, strict fiscal management and zero tolerance for corruption.

But he faces a strong challenge in Michael Sata, a populist whose Patriotic Front has painted Mwanawasa as a sell-out to foreign business, particularly the Chinese companies that have expanded their interests in Zambia’s vast copper mines.

”I’m here to vote in order to change the system. I am a very dissatisfied citizen,” said Stephen Mukuka, a 35-year-old Lusaka businessman who was at the front of the queue at one polling station. ”We want better things for Zambians.”

Mwanawasa’s opponents have said the president was not fit to lead Zambia after suffering what was described as a minor stroke in April. Mwanawasa has rejected the charge, saying he is ”fit as a fiddle.”

Mwanawasa and Sata (69) each have been tipped to win in different opinion polls, leaving political analysts to call this one of the closest races seen in the country since independence from Britain in 1964.

Zambia’s last general elections in 2001 were marked by irregularities and charges of vote fraud, increasing jitters ahead of Thursday’s vote despite promises from electoral officials that the polls would be free and fair.

Delayed polling

Last minute organisation of ballot papers delayed polling at several Lusaka precincts slightly past the scheduled 4am GMT start time, but long queues soon began to move.

Polls are due to close at 4pm GMT, and electoral officials say it could take several days for a victor to emerge. Mwanawasa, in a television address on Wednesday, urged Zambia’s 4-million registered voters to cast ballots peacefully and said he was willing to stand down if defeated.

Five candidates are running for president but only one other, Hakainde Hichilema of the United Democratic Alliance, is expected to attract much national support in the election, which will also seat a new Parliament and municipal councils.

Mwanawasa’s ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) has been on the defensive despite an economic record which saw Zambia win about $7-billion in debt relief from Western donors and the country’s GDP growth rise to 5,1% in 2005.

Sata has promised voters lower taxes, an increased slice of state-owned enterprise, and a cap on foreign ownership of Zambia’s mines at 51% — winning support among many voters but leaving economists wondering how his government would pay its bills.

More than two-thirds of Zambia’s 11,5-million people live on less than $1 per day. – Reuters