Zambia opposition to challenge election result

ZAMBIA: Zambia’s opposition Patriotic Front will launch a court challenge on Tuesday to demand a vote recount after centrist politician Rupiah Banda was sworn in as president on Sunday after a disputed poll.

Defeated opposition leader Michael Sata has branded the election to find a successor to the late President Levy Mwanawasa a fraud.Mwanawasa died from a stroke in August, two years into his second five-year presidential term.

“They are still preparing certain documents and they will be filing them tomorrow,” said Given Lubinda, spokesman for Sata’s Patriotic Front said on Monday.

The court petition will ask for a recount and the verification of all ballots cast in the election, he said.

Zambia has been one of the most politically stable nations in Africa. However, a prolonged election dispute could unsettle investors at a time when Africa’s largest copper producer is feeling the pinch from the global financial crisis.

Banda — acting president after Mwanawasa’s death — won 40 percent of the 1.79 million votes cast on Thursday versus 38 percent for Sata, according to final results released by Zambia’s electoral commission. A third candidate took the bulk of the remaining votes.

The margin of victory was 35,209 votes.

Sata, who says the poll was marked by discrepancies between vote tallies and the number of voters on registration lists, led through two days of counting before Banda overtook him in results late on Saturday.

The opposition leader, who finds strong support among workers and the poor, alleged fraud in 2006 when he lost the presidential.

Lusaka, Monday, REUTERS