Zambia’s main opposition leader, Michael Sata, had an early lead in national elections, according to preliminary results mostly from his party’s urban strongholds, but the race could narrow as the counting continues.
Veteran politician Sata and President Levy Mwanawasa were both expected to do well in their traditional areas of support. Sata (69) and his party had campaigned on promises to create more jobs in Zambia, where only 20% of the workforce is formally employed. His popularity has soared in impoverished townships across Zambia.
Early returns in the parliamentary race on Friday showed Sata’s Patriotic Front winning seats by wide margins in many of the 25 districts reporting results so far, leading some supporters to start celebrating in the capital. All of the legislature’s 150 seats are up for grabs in the vote.
In the first results in the presidential race, Sata had nearly 50% of the votes cast in the 25 districts to report thus far, compared with 28% for Mwanawasa, according to the head of the state-run Electoral Commission, Judge Irene Mambilima. But 125 districts have yet to announce results.
The private Foundation for Democratic Process said that in other areas of the Southern African country the count appeared to be ”neck and neck.”
Another opposition candidate, businessman Hichilema Haikande, had 20% of votes confirmed in the early results, Mambilima said.
President Mwanawasa hoped to capitalise on his economic achievements since being elected in 2001 with only 29% of the vote. After years of liberalisation, Zambia’s economy grew 5% last year, and inflation — long in the high double digits — dropped below 10% in recent months.
The 58-year-old president was trailing by wide margins in the 25 districts reporting results late on Friday. In one area, the impoverished Mandevu district in western Lusaka, Sata had more than twice the number of votes as Mwanawasa.
Cars, buses and trucks bearing Sata’s portrait celebrated by flashing their lights and honked their horns in the capital.
Most of the Patriotic Front’s other leads were in the northern Copperbelt district, the nation’s industrial and copper-mining heartland.
Turnout for Thursday’s election was reported by independent monitors to have been at least 50% across the country of 11,5-million. The vote was also to choose hundreds of district council posts.
The campaign was marked by bitter controversy over foreign investment, anti-corruption efforts and the growing economic influence of China.
Sata and Haikande said Zambia’s gains have not translated into improved health and education. Sata also has questioned the health of the president, who suffered a stroke in April.
The national elections were Zambia’s fourth since it ended 27 years of one-party rule in 1991. — Sapa-AP