Zambia arrests 133 protesters after disputed poll results Edgar Lungu
Edgar Lungu

Edgar Lungu

LUSAKA. – Zambian police allegedly arrested 133 people protesting against the re-election of President Edgar Lungu after his main opponent Hakainde Hichilema said the vote was rigged, a senior police officer said.

The opposition party quickly rejected that result, saying the electoral commission had colluded to rig the result in favour of Lungu.

“They targeted perceived supporters of the ruling party, destroying their property,” Godwin Phiri, a Southern province police chief, told the Reuters news agency yesterday, referring to those arrested.

“It is like this was well-planned and they were just waiting for the winner to be declared. Calm has now returned following the arrests.”

Hichilema’s United Party for National Development (UPND) said it will appeal the result at the Constitutional Court, accusing election officials of fraud during the count which began after voting ended last Thursday.

“The PF has effected a coup on Zambia’s democratic process,” Hichilema said in a statement late on Monday.

“We submitted evidence before the declaration of the results regarding the gross irregularities that have taken place. That is why we will not accept the result.”

Al Jazeera’s Tania Page, reporting from the capital Lusaka, said the opposition was also trying to block the presidential inauguration to protest “leaving it up to the country’s courts to settle the differences between Zambia’s fierce political rivals”.

The EU also supported Hichilema’s view that police had acted politically at times, and had also cracked down “quite harshly” on some of his political gatherings, Page said.

The ruling party and the electoral commission have rejected the UPND’s accusations. – Reuters.

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