Main opposition takes early lead in Zambian presidential poll

By James Kunda

LUSAKA, Zambia (AA) - Zambia’s leading opposition figure Hakainde Hichilema took an early lead in the presidential election poll results released at dawn on Saturday.

Hichilema of the United Party for National Development (UPND) was 171,604 votes ahead of sitting President Edgar Lungu of the Patriotic Front (PF), who was in second place with 110,178 votes, according to initial unofficial results.

Ballot counting continues in the Southern African country and while it is still early to call a result, Hichilema has picked up critical wins in some parts of Lungu’s strongholds like the Copperbelt province, which houses most of the nation's economic lifeblood with most of its copper mines, as well as in the capital Lusaka.

Hichilema leads in 15 of 150 constituencies finalized early on Saturday.

Results from Hichilema's strongholds in the Western, Southern and North-Western provinces have yet to start filtering through.

Zambia, with just over 7 million registered voters, recorded a huge voter turnout in voting on Thursday.

Both the ruling and opposition parties say their parallel voter tabulation efforts shown their own candidates winning the polls.

There were 16 candidates running for president, including three who have conceded defeat, saying the race was between Hichilema and Lungu.

These three are Sean Tembo of the Patriots for Economic Progress (PEP), ex-Vice President Nevers Mumba of the New Hope Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) and journalist Fred M'membe of the Socialist Party (SP).

The electoral commission, through Deputy Chairwoman Emily Sikazwe, assured the country that the results would be released in a timely manner to meet the set deadline of 72 hours after the last ballot was cast.

This was after delays that nearly caused public protests in some parts of Lusaka.

Esther Katongo, a police spokeswoman, however, said the situation was contained beforehand through an effective response team.

Another delay in the announcement of the results was at the national totaling center, where some political party monitors, including the UPND, raised concern that the commission attempted to announce a set of results which were pending approval.