Hichilema Wins Zambia Second Term With 61.4% of Vote as Fraud Claims Shadow Count
Updated
Updated · Al Jazeera English · Aug 18
Hichilema Wins Zambia Second Term With 61.4% of Vote as Fraud Claims Shadow Count
3 articles · Updated · Al Jazeera English · Aug 18
Summary
Electoral authorities declared Hakainde Hichilema president-elect for a second five-year term after he won 61.4% of valid votes against Brian Mundubile’s 38%.
About 5 million ballots were cast in the August 13 election, but the count was disrupted after authorities suspended tallying for hours over violence against polling staff and stolen ballot papers.
Tensions had already escalated on election night, when 11 people including opposition figures were arrested in a gunfire raid the government said targeted an armed insurrection; Mundubile’s party said the raid hit his home and wounded an MP.
Mundubile alleged possible alteration of polling-station result forms and sought an independent investigation, while Hichilema’s camp rejected the claims and supporters celebrated in Lusaka after the result.
EU observers said voting was largely peaceful but the broader process limited fundamental freedoms, underscoring strains in a country long seen as a model of electoral transfers of power.