Rioters took to the streets of the two main towns in Zambia's Copper Belt on Thursday amid frustration at a delay in tallying the results of this week's presidential election in Africa's biggest copper producer, police said.
"They are on the streets with stones and we can only urge them to stop the riotous behaviour," Copper Belt police chief Martin Malama said.
"We have not assessed the extent of the damage yet because we are still trying to contain the situation."
The southern African nation has just over 5-million registered voters and turnout in the closely contested election on Tuesday, which was marred by sporadic riots and 19 arrests in the capital Lusaka, appears to have been around 60%.
Sata was holding on to his lead over Banda as counting moved beyond a halfway point on Thursday.
According to the latest tally read out at the Commission's headquarters, Sata had 639 787 votes compared with 542 362 for Banda. The figures were based on results from 85 of the country's 150 constituencies.
Delaying results
Hackers allegedly attacked the website of Zambia's Election Commission on Thursday, posting a string of false results showing opposition leader Michael Sata in the lead and causing delays to the release of the official tally.
"The process appears to be slow because the results need to be verified before release," Commission spokesman Cris Akufuna said. Election officials are running double and triple checks with regional counting centres.
Banda is expected to perform the stronger in the countryside, which is likely to report votes more slowly than Sata's strongholds in the capital, Lusaka, and the Copper Belt, the country's economic heartland.
It is therefore too early to say whether Sata is on the verge of an historic transfer of power in the former British colony, removing the MMD from the presidency for the first time since the end of one-party rule in 1991.
"Results are still being tallied in some constituency centres, and we expect to make significant progress by the end of the day," Akufuna said.
The election was held on Tuesday and it may now take until the weekend for a complete result to be known.
Sata, known as "King Cobra" for his vicious comments, has toned down his rhetoric against foreign mining firms, most notably those from China. But a victory for the 74-year-old would still cloud the investment outlook for what has been one of frontier Africa's most attractive prospects.
He lost to Banda, also 74, by just 35 000 votes, or 2% of the electorate, in a 2008 presidential run-off triggered by the death in office of Levy Mwanawasa. — Reuters