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Zambia Election: Hichilema leads Lungu in partial results

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Zambia’s opposition leader, Hakainde Hichilema of the United Party for National Development (UPND) has taken an early lead in Thursday’s presidential election.

The first set of official results were released by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) on Saturday morning with more results still expected later on Saturday.

Results from 15 of Zambia’s 156 constituencies showed that Hakainde Hichilema leads with 171,604 votes to 110,178 for incumbent President Edgar Lungu, who leads the Patriotic Front (PF).

This year’s presidential election is expected to be very close between President Lungu, 64, and Hichilema, 59, who is vying for the position for the sixth time.

Hichilema is backed by an alliance of 10 parties in this presidential election.

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Final results are however expected to be released within 72 hours from the close of polling under Zambian law.

There are already concession speeches coming out from the camps of other smaller political parties who say Hichilema and his UPND are headed for win.

Hichilema’s UPND Alliance chairman Charles Milupi said on Friday in a statement that independent tallies showed their candidate had won over with 50 percent of the vote.

“Thanks to the determination of the people and their willingness to queue for long hours to cast their vote we are now confident that our presidential candidate Hakainde Hichilema is poised for a first round victory and will shortly be headed to State House,” he said.

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President Edgar Lungu had deployed more troops in parts of the country to quell election violence.

Lungu said election-day violence had killed two people, including the chairman of his party in North-Western province.

Zambia’s predominantly young electorate will be key in deciding who wins as they push for improvements to the economic situation and better job opportunities.

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Source: Africafeeds.com

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