Lusaka, Zambia – Opposition leaders cried foul and protesters rioted for a second day Monday as Zambia’s president won five more years in power.
After a hard-fought campaign among five candidates, President Levy Mwanawasa, head of the long-ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy, was re- elected with 43 percent of the vote. His main rival, Michael Sata of the Patriotic Front, received 29.3 percent.
Sata said the election was stolen. Several other opposition parties complained of irregularities in Thursday’s balloting and called for the results to be verified.
Soldiers were deployed Monday in parts of Lusaka, and police clashed with opposition supporters. Dozens were arrested in two days of rioting.
“Once Mwanawasa is declared the winner, I will congratulate him for successfully stealing the vote,” Sata said before the final result was announced Monday night. “I will go back to the people and thank them for their support, but I will put up a big battle inside parliament and outside parliament.”
Parliamentary results released Monday showed Mwanawasa’s party, which has ruled Zambia for 15 years, won 70 of 150 seats, followed by the Patriotic Front, with 36 seats.
Hakainda Hichilema of the United Democratic Alliance, who came in third with 25 percent, also complained to the electoral commission of irregularities.
Sata and some other candidates suggested there was no point in taking a complaint to the courts, where past electoral challenges have failed.
A group of local nongovernmental organizations that observed the poll, led by the Foundation for Democratic Process, said that, in some constituencies, the number of ballots counted was higher than the number of registered voters.
But international observers saw an improvement from the poll five years ago. A European Union mission said the election preparations in Zambia, one of Africa’s poorest and least-developed countries, were largely professional and transparent.
