Zambia: Opposition demand ballot recount

Tension mounts in Zambia http://www.africanews.com/site/list_messages/21393

Police in Zambia have arrested 18 people for rioting and causing extensive damage to public property. They all belong to the opposition Patriotic Front. The suspects burnt makeshift shops and stoned motor vehicles after the Electoral Commission declared acting President Rupiah Banda winner. Police in Lusaka say one vehicle was extensively damaged in Lusaka’s high-density suburbs of Chipata and Mandevu. Provincial police Chief Greenwell Ng’uni told reporters in the Zambian capital that police had to fire tear gas to disperse the unruly cadres.Ng’uni has cautioned that police will not allow any outbreak of post election violence. Rupiah Banda was on Sunday sworn-in at a ceremony in Lusaka. He succeeded Levy Mwanawasa who died of a stroke in France on August 19.Banda’s closest rival and opposition Patriotic Front leader Michael Sata has claimed that the vote was rigged and that he will take the matter to court

Zambia: Opposition demand ballot recount http://www.africanews.com/site/list_messages/21394

Zambia's losing presidential hopeful Michael Sata has demanded for a recount of the results after losing to Banda who has since been sworn in as president. The Patriotic Front has claimed the election was rigged and marred by electoral irregularities that can only be corrected through a ballot recount. Party Vice President Guy Scott has disclosed that the party will seek judicial guidance on the matter after the Electoral Commission of Zambia rejected to hear the patriotic front’s preliminary request to suspend the announcement of the results. Scott says the party’s legal committee is in the process of filing court documents to compel the electoral commission to recount the presidential ballots and ensure that they are verified. Rupiah Banda, who was sworn in as president on Sunday, had been acting head of state since the death of Levy Mwanawasa in August and he had campaigned to maintain the business friendly policies of his predecessor. He won 40 percent of the 1.79 million votes cast against 38 percent for Sata, according to final results released by the electoral commission. The margin of victory was 35,209 votes.During the election campaign, Sata portrayed himself as a champion of the poor and said if elected he would act to get foreign companies to sell equity stakes to Zambians.

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Zambia .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zambia

In the mid-1970s, the price of copper, Zambia's principal export, suffered a severe decline worldwide. In Zambia's situation, the cost of transporting the copper great distances to market was an additional strain. Zambia turned to foreign and international lenders for relief, but, as copper prices remained depressed, it became increasingly difficult to service its growing debt. By the mid-1990s, despite limited debt relief, Zambia's per capita foreign debt remained among the highest in the world.