Zambian President Edgar Lungu, trailing after early results, said on Saturday the presidential and parliamentary election was “not free and fair” after incidents of violence in three provinces.
Lungu said the Patriotic Front party that he leads was consulting on its next course of action.
Results from 31 of the country’s 156 constituencies from Thursday’s vote put businessman Hakainde Hichilema, who has criticized the president’s management of an economy in turmoil ahead of Lungu, who is running for a second five-year term.
Some constituencies include perceived Lungu strongholds, suggesting Hichilema has gained ground since the last elections in 2016, when he lost by a slim margin in a vote marred by allegations of rigging.
Hichilema’s United Party for National Development party said Lungu’s comments were the “desperate final act of an outgoing administration”. Lungu’s party said its vote tally showed a huge turnout in its strongholds and it was confident of victory.
The European Union’s election observer mission released a preliminary report in the capital Lusaka, describing the process as technically well-managed but “marred by unequal campaign conditions, restrictions on freedoms of assembly and movement, and abuse of incumbency”.
The statement from Lungu’s office said: “President Lungu says the general election in three provinces, namely, Southern province, North-Western province, and Western Province, were characterized by violence, rendering the whole exercise a nullity.”
He said Patriotic Front polling agents were brutalized and chased from polling stations 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 election “not free and fair”.