Zambian opposition hopes jumped on Friday following the copper-rich country’s tightly fought presidential race as one government-owned newspaper forecast a major victory for populist challenger Michael Sata.
The Zambia Daily Mail, defying laws which bar local media from calling the race before all votes are counted, said Sata and his Patriotic Front appeared to be running well in front of incumbent Levy Mwanawasa.
The Electoral Commission of Zambia had not released any official results by early Friday morning, however, and officials urged patience.
”Results are coming in, or perhaps the right word would be trickling in,” said Commission spokesperson Chris Akufuna. ”Keep your cool.”
Thursday’s election became a referendum on Mwanawasa’s economic policies, which have earned praise from international lenders such as the World Bank but which have done little to combat poverty in a country where about two-thirds of the population live on less than $1 per day.
Sata, a 69-year-old former Cabinet minister known as ”King Cobra” for his political cunning, drew huge numbers to rallies where he promised to cut taxes, cap foreign ownership of Zambia’s huge copper mines and get tough with ”bogus” investors such as Chinese traders accused of exploiting Zambian workers.
Mwanawasa, for his part, urged Zambians to give him a second and final five-year term based on his record of winning billions in debt relief for the country, pushing economic growth above 5% and cracking down on corruption.
The World Bank said it hoped that whoever emerged as the victor would continue to promote pragmatic policies.
”While the outcome of the elections in Zambia is not yet clear, we hope and expect that the economic progress that Zambia has made recently will be continued under the government elected by the Zambian people,” World Bank Africa spokesperson John Donaldson said in Washington.
Different opinion polls had tipped both Mwanawasa and Sata to win, which spurred political analysts to predict that Thursday’s vote could be the closest since independence from Britain in 1964.
But the Zambia Daily Mail said early reports from many polling stations indicated that Sata was pulling into a ”commanding” lead.
Election officials say this year’s vote was nearly flawless, except for a few instances where voters were left off the registers by mistake.
Sata’s Patriotic Front has also questioned certain shipments of ballot papers, opening another possible avenue to challenge results that do not fit the party’s expectation of a major victory.
A third candidate in the presidential election, Hakainde Hichilema of the United Democratic Alliance, was endorsed by liberation hero Kenneth Kaunda as the ”best man to lead Zambia” but is expected to come third in the race.
The Electoral Commission introduced a range of measures to try to ensure free and fair elections following widespread charges of vote-rigging in the 2001 elections, which brought Mwanawasa to power as leader of the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy.
Officials used satellite technology to transmit poll results and employed transparent ballot boxes for the first time in an effort to assure Zambia’s four million registered voters that their ballots would be counted. — Reuters