.LUNGU

By REBECCA MUSHOTA, CATHERINE NYIRENDA and CHARITY MOONGA –

PATRIOTIC Front (PF) president Edgar Lungu has continued to lead in results from 90 out of the 150 constituencies verified by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ).
ECZ chairperson Ireen Mambilima said from the 90 constituencies, Mr Lungu polled 590,252 votes representing 50.83 per cent followed by United Party for National Development (UPND)’s Hakainde Hichilema who polled 524,976, representing 45. 18 per cent.
Ms Justice Mambilima made the announcement at Mulungushi International Conference Centre yesterday during a media briefing at the results centre.
MMD’s Nevers Mumba had 8,831 and Edith Nawakwi of the Forum for Democracy and Development had 8,806 while UNIP’s Tilyenji Kaunda got 5,717 votes.
Eric Chanda of Fourth Revolution had 4,029 votes, National Restoration Party’s Elias Chipimo Jr was on 3,812 votes and Godfrey Miyanda of Heritage Party had 3, 445 votes.
Trailing were Daniel Pule of Christian Democratic Party with 1,962 votes, Ludwig Sondashi of Forum for Democratic Alternatives had 1,118 and Peter Sinkamba of Green Party got 889 votes.
Earlier, Ms Justice Mambilima had released results from 80 constituencies where Mr Lungu had polled 533, 613 votes representing 50. 83 per cent followed by UPND’s Hakainde Hichilema polled 474, 076, representing 45.18 per cent.
The additional 10 constituencies verified and announced were Bwana Mkubwa, Milanzi, Bahati, Mansa Central, Kaputa, Lukashya, Mpulungu, Nalikwanda, Siavonga and Sinazongwe.
“Despite some people still voting in some polling stations, the Commission has reviewed its decision to start announcing the results as it will have a minimum impact because most of these areas do not have GSM communication in these areas for them to be influenced by the announcements,” Ms Justice Mambilima said.
At the time the Commission resumed the announcement of results, it confirmed that the total number of voters still voting in the remaining polling stations were 2,794.
From the earlier 80 constituencies verified, six constituencies were from Central Province, 17 from Copperbelt, 8 from Eastern, 10 from Luapula, 12 from Lusaka, three from Muchinga.
Others were four from Northern Province, five from North Western Province and 3 from Western Province.
Ms Justice Mambilima warned those that were conducting Parallel Voter Tabulation (PVT) to be cautious in the manner they were releasing results to avoid causing false alarm.
She, however, noted that there was nothing wrong with PVT as it validated its results once done in an orderly manner.
“Most people who are doing PVT are not in the 6456 polling station across the country and their results might not depict the real picture on the ground and when these people doing this go half way in inflaming emotions and this might be dangerous,” she said.
She also dismissed rumours that some constituencies recorded 90 per cent voter turnout stating that the election was marred with voter apathy with the average of 38 per cent turnout.
Earlier ECZ director Priscilla Isaacs said voting in some polling stations in Chama South, Rufunsa and Muchinga was underway and would only conclude at 01:00 and 02:00 hours today.
Meanwhile Justice Mambilima has expressed concern at the voter apathy and the continued mistrust of the ECZ by stakeholders.
ECZ was concerned with the unreasonable levels of suspicion among stakeholders and politicians.
“As for voter apathy, it is very worrying and more needs to be done to address that problem,” he said..
Ms Isaacs castigated PF and UPND cadres for harassing ECZ officials and demanded that the political leaders restrain their members.