Zambia’s presidential race tightened sharply on Saturday as overnight counting yielded big wins for incumbent President Levy Mwanawasa, spurring his main rival to warn of ”ghastly consequences” if any poll fraud was detected, newspapers said.
Populist opposition leader Michael Sata had staked out a solid lead in the polls on Friday, amid tensions more than 24 hours after polls closed. But political observers had said the final result could remain close.
The independent Zambia Post said its poll observers reported large wins for Mwanawasa in the North West, West, East, and Central provinces, which could yield a ”landslide win” for the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD).
The Post’s estimates were based on its own reports from various polling stations that announced their own ballot tallies. Nationally, official results are only announced by the Electoral Commission of Zambia, which as of late on Friday still had Sata ‘s Patriotic Front well in the lead.
But the newspaper said it projected the MMD could emerge with as many as 81 out of Parliament’s 150 seats, up from the 72 it won in 2001.
Sata, who rallied huge numbers with promises of tax cuts and a more equitable distribution of Zambia’s copper wealth, vowed that Mwanawasa would not get the presidency, the Post said.
”If they play some monkey tricks, the consequences will be too ghastly to contemplate,” the Post quoted Sata as saying, reflecting widespread fears among his supporters that the MMD might try to rig the vote.
The state-owned Times of Zambia also said the race appeared exceedingly tight, with Mwanawasa grabbing a ”resounding victory” in North West province, his main base of rural support.
Final term
Mwanawasa (58) ran for a second and final five-year term based on his strong economic record, which included winning billions of dollars in debt relief and boosting economic growth above 5%. But he had little of Sata’s grassroots appeal.
With tensions rising, the Times of Zambia urged Zambians to accept the results with the same peaceful spirit that marked Thursday’s elections.
”As the nation awaits presidential results, we call for a similar calm coupled with the maturity so far exhibited,” the newspaper said in an editorial.
The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) has been praised by international observers for running an efficient and transparent election. But the commission came under increasing criticism on Friday for the extremely slow pace of result announcements.
ECZ chairperson Ireen Mambilima said the delay was due to the fact that voting was extended in parts of western Zambia until Friday. Zambian electoral officials are barred by law from revealing presidential poll results until all ballots are in.
The next batch of official results is due to be released after 10am local time on Saturday.
As of late Friday, Sata appeared to be the clear frontrunner, scooping 22 of 27 constituencies reporting and almost 50% of the 722 000 votes certified thus far. Zambia has about four million registered voters, and officials said turnout for Thursday’s election was very high.
Political observers cautioned that the constituencies released were mostly in Sata’s electoral strongholds of Lusaka and the northern Copperbelt region, leaving regions where Mwanawasa’s MMD is strong and yet to be counted.
Sata, a veteran politician known as ”King Cobra”, won fans around the country by promising to cut taxes, distribute shares in state enterprises and get tough with foreign investors, particularly from China.
Sata’s message resonated strongly with the many of Zambia’s 11,5-million people, some two-thirds of whom still live on about $1 per day despite their country’s huge copper resources. — Reuters