by Charles Mafa
LUSAKA, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Losing candidate in Zambia's presidential election, Hakainde Hichilema, has disputed the results of Thursday's vote, citing "irregularities in totaling thousands of votes" in key areas of Lusaka.
The United Party for National Development (UPND) leader described the election, whose results he will challenge in court, as a "military coup through a democratic process".
Edgar Lungu, leader of the Patriotic Front (PF), was re-elected for the second time as president despite facing stiff competition from his longtime rival, Hichilema, in the country's election.
Lungu won 50.35 percent in Thursday's vote, while Hichilema secured 47.63 percent.
Hichilema has since accused PF of "acting with impunity to change the people's will". He said, by refusing to recount the votes in affected areas, the Electoral Commission has taken the decision away from the people.
"We endured countless obstacles and perversions of our democracy throughout the campaign period," he said. "We cannot now accept the manipulation of the vote itself."
He has cited, among others, the withholding of G12 forms -- the certificate of the announced results at polling stations -- as the basis for launching a court process. Other reasons, he said, include intimidation of his polling agents at polling stations by PF supporters, and the discovery of pre-marked ballot papers outside of Airforce headquarters in Lusaka on Sunday morning.
Millions of Zambians voted in the election on August 11 to elect a president and members of the national assembly, amid warnings that the violence seen during the campaigns could reduce turnout. However, large voter turnout was recorded in most of the country's 7,700 polling stations on the Election Day.
Although nine presidential candidates took part in the election which was held alongside the national referendum on the Bill of Rights, the main contest was between Lungu and Hichilema.
It was seen as a repeat of a 2015 special election that Lungu won by a slim margin to complete the term of President Michael Sata, who died suddenly in October 2014.
On Wednesday, the last day of campaigns, Lungu urged voters to give him a full term. "I have been on probation for one year, six months, and I think I have done very well," he said at a rally.
Hichilema, who was seeking the presidency for the fifth time, said that he was better equipped to "fix the broken economy.
Zambia has had smooth elections and transfers of power since 1991, long before multiparty democracies emerged elsewhere on the continent. But the clean record was under threat during election campaigns, a number of people were killed and several others injured in political violence.
The violence was mainly between the two the PF of Lungu and the UPND of Hichilema.
On Tuesday before the vote, Justice Esau Essau Chulu, chairman of the Electoral Commission, said that the violence was "unprecedented and has marred Zambia's historic record of peaceful elections."
But some critics said that the PF, as the governing party, bore greater responsibility for the violence.
Beyond the elections, Zambia's economy remains largely dependent on copper, which makes up more than 70 percent of the country's exports. But falling prices and decreasing demand form the country's main export market have led to the closing of mines and the loss of jobs. And severe power shortage, resulting from an El Nino-induced drought and mismanagement of its water resources, deepened the country's economic woes.
There is also the issue of a bailout from the International Monetary Fund. Lungu's government has agreed on measures to control spending, including cutting back on electricity and fuel subsidies, though only after the elections.
Despite such economic problems, Lungu campaigned on promises to increase spending on infrastructure, health and education.
