International observers monitoring Zambia’s presidential election have raised concerns over reports of intimidation and abductions, after vote counting was suspended for several hours amid violence at polling stations.
Observer missions – including those from the European Union and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region – on Saturday called for parties to tone down inflammatory statements as votes cast in Thursday’s general election were tallied.
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Vote counting was temporarily suspended on Friday following reports of violence against polling staff and the alleged theft of ballot papers. Counting resumed hours later after the electoral commission said the “security threat to the electoral process had been contained”, said Al Jazeera’s Haru Mutasa, reporting from the capital, Lusaka.
Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema, 64, is seeking a second term with the ruling United Party for National Development (UPND). His main challenger is a 55-year-old former minister in the previous Patriotic Front (PF) government, Brian Mundubile, who is running as the opposition candidate for the National Reconciliation Party for Unity and Prosperity (NRPUP).
Mundubile said the suspension “raises legitimate fears”, warning that the delay in counting could “create an opportunity for interference with manipulation of results”.
His UPND rivals rejected the allegation. Mark Simuuwe, campaign media director for Hichilema, told Al Jazeera that the opposition was “panicking”. He insisted the results were “legitimate” and accused Mundubile’s party of “disruption”.
‘Uncertainty and anxiety’
Samuel Tembenu, a former Malawian justice minister who leads the regional SADC observer mission, said his team “was not in a position to observe the counting and collection of results during the period of suspension”, adding that the mission would address the episode in its final report.
“The mission at the moment urges all contestants, their supporters, and all stakeholders to remain calm,” he said.
Tembenu added that the suspension had caused “uncertainty and anxiety”, and said his mission had received, though could not independently verify, reports of intimidation, assault, abduction and property damage across five provinces, with some submissions alleging injuries and at least one fatality.
Michael McNamara, the chief observer of the European Union’s observer mission in Zambia, said: “It is for the Zambian authorities to outline in full the reasons for the decision-making” behind the suspension. He separately said the vote had unfolded against “a backdrop of constrained democratic space,” citing the advantages of incumbency and what he described as heavily biased state media coverage of the race.
Reinhold Lopatka, who led the European Parliament’s observer delegation, said the pause appeared “disproportionate” given that only a small fraction of Zambia’s more than 13,000 polling stations had reportedly been affected.
He said his mission had been told that opposition figures faced intimidation, including from security forces, that some candidates had withdrawn under pressure, and that opposition rallies had been broken up by violence. “Even one loss of life is one too many,” he added.
Zambian police said nine people had been arrested over the killing of a 57-year-old polling agent in a township outside Lusaka on election day, while maintaining that voting had otherwise passed off peacefully.
Vote counting continues
Mundubile has claimed victory, citing his party’s own parallel vote count and alleging irregularities, including claims that military personnel took control of tallying centres in Mufulira, that result forms went missing and that officials in North-Western Province were told to stop releasing results.
Hichilema has stopped short of declaring victory, saying only that his campaign was seeing “encouraging” results as official counting continued.
The Electoral Commission of Zambia released a batch of official results late Saturday at the National Results Centre, based on a partial count of 49 of 226 constituencies. Hichilema led with 438,708 votes (52.6 percent), followed by Mundubile with 351,281 votes (42.1 percent) and Kelvin Bwalya of the Zambia Must Prosper party a distant third with 3,965 votes. The commission cautioned that the figures were not yet final.
Al Jazeera’s Mutasa reported that police and soldiers in armed vehicles had been deployed in parts of Lusaka, and said it remained unclear whether Friday’s suspension would delay the announcement of final results, previously expected on Monday.
The commission said it would issue a further notice on Sunday morning regarding the timing of its next results announcement.
About 8.7 million people were registered to vote in Zambia, a country of 22 million that is rich in copper reserves, with a long history of peaceful transfers of power.