Zambia election results put Hichilema on course to win

Zambia's President Hakainde Hichilema moved ahead in partial presidential election results on Sunday, with more than half of constituencies counted and enough of the vote so far to put him on course for a first-round win.

The Electoral Commission of Zambia said Hichilema had won 1,544,140 votes, or 58.87 percent, in 135 of the country's 226 constituencies. His closest challenger, Brian Mundubile, had 1,030,662 votes in a field of 14 candidates.

A presidential candidate needs more than 50 percent of valid votes to win outright. If no candidate reaches that threshold, the top contenders face a run-off. Final results were due on Monday.

The partial results were a major advance from the first batch released after counting resumed Friday, when Hichilema led Mundubile by 22,476 votes to 14,388 with four constituencies tallied.

The commission had suspended counting for about six hours on Friday after reports of violence against polling staff and the alleged theft of marked ballot papers. It has not said whether the stolen ballots were retrieved.

Mundubile had earlier claimed he had won the presidential election in the first round and said his party had also secured a parliamentary majority.

Thursday's vote was largely peaceful, but the campaign period was marked by opposition claims of intimidation, arrests, abductions and violence. Police said a 57-year-old polling agent in a township outside Lusaka died on voting day after being attacked by a group of men. Nine suspects were arrested.

Observer missions, including the European Union, called on parties to tone down inflammatory statements before the final results. The SADC regional observer mission, led by former Malawian justice minister Samuel Tembenu, said the counting suspension had caused “uncertainty and anxiety.” Reinhold Lopatka, head of the European Parliament's election observer delegation, described the suspension as “disproportionate.”

The European Union said Saturday that restrictions had “contributed to an uneven playing field” in the vote. Opposition parties and civil society groups have warned of a tightening political environment under Hichilema, citing curbs on campaigning and other restrictions.

Zambia has transferred power through elections after every change of president since the return to multiparty politics in 1991. Hichilema, 64, won office in 2021 on his sixth attempt, defeating Edgar Lungu.

The election is seen as a test of Hichilema's first five years in office. Zambia's economy has returned to growth, but critics say the improvement has not translated into better living standards for ordinary households. More than 70 percent of the country's 22 million people live on less than $3 a day, according to the World Bank.