Opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema has defeated incumbent Edgar Lungu in Zambia’s presidential election, the election commission said on Monday as releasing the final results from 156 constituencies, without one.
In the final figure, Hichilema secured 2,810,777 votes while Lungu was in second place with 1,814,201 votes, out of 7 million registered voters.
“I therefore declare that the said Hichilema is the President of Zambia,” the President of the Electoral Commission, Esau Chulu, told a packed results center in the capital Lusaka.
The massive win meant that Hichilema did not have to compete for other rounds after meeting the constitutional threshold of 50.1% for a direct winner.
The election has been marred by sporadic violence and Hichilema, a former CEO of an accounting firm before entering politics, would face the daunting task of turning over the economic fortunes of one of the world’s poorest countries.
Investors are watching closely the choice of Africa’s second-largest copper producer, which set the continent’s first sovereign standard at the November pandemic.
Lungu said on Saturday that the election was “not free and fair” after incidents of violence against ruling party political agents in three provinces, and the party consulted on the next course of action.
Officials from Hichilema’s United Party for National Development (UPND) dismissed Lungu’s statement as coming from people who “tried to throw out the entire election just to hold on to their jobs.”
According to the law, if Lungu wants to resolve a dispute or cancel an election, he must go to the Constitutional Court within seven days to file a complaint after a winner is appointed.
Hichilema, who has led a mainly two-horse race since the first results were announced on Saturday, is trying to turn a narrow loss in the 2016 presidential election against Lungu, 64, who was seeking a second five-year term.
The COVID-19 pandemic, significant youth unemployment, falling copper prices from Zambia’s core exports and unsustainable fiscal policies have led to growing general dissatisfaction with Lungu.
General agreement support for Zambia from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is waiting until after the vote, as well as a debt restructuring plan is seen as an early test for a new global plan aimed at easing poor countries.
(REUTERS)
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