Reuters
Zambian President Edgar Lungu has declared Thursday’s presidential and parliamentary election “not free and fair” after incidents of violence in three provinces, he said in a surprise statement released on Saturday.
Lungu, who was trailing his main contender Hakainde Hichilema in early results from the electoral commission, said the Patriotic Front party that he leads was consulting on its next course of action.
“President Lungu says the general election in three provinces, namely, Southern province, North Western province, and Western Province, were characterised by violence, rendering the whole exercise a nullity,” the statement from his office said.
He said Patriotic Front polling agents were brutalised and chased from polling stations, a “situation that left the ruling party’s votes unprotected” in those three provinces.
Citing the killing of a party chairman in North Western province during voting and the death of another man, Lungu said these criminal acts rendered the general election “not free and fair”.
Lungu brought in army reinforcements to help quell violence when the deaths occurred.
Lungu, 64, has been in power since 2015. Hichilema – known as “HH” – is a businessman who has criticised the president’s management of an economy in turn…
