Zambia: President Edgar Lungu elected in disputed vote

Zambia's incumbent President Edgar Lungu has been declared the winner of a closely fought presidential election, but the result was immediately challenged by his main opponent Hakainde Hichilema.

Lungu, leader of the Patriotic Front (PF), won 50.35 percent of Thursday's vote, against 47.67 percent for Hichilema, of the United Party for National Development (UPND), the Electoral Commission of ZaThe opposition party quickly, however, rejected the result, claiming the electoral commission had colluded to rig the vote against its candidate.

"We have evidence to the effect that the votes for Hakainde Hichilema have been deliberately reduced in collusion with the Electoral Commission of Zambia," the UPND's lawyer, Jack Mwiimbu, told journalists.

"We have confidence that the constitutional court will rise above board and declare the results a nullity," he said.

Police said officers were sent to quell rioting by Hichilema's supporters in the south of the country who blocked roads and burned tyres after the result was announced. Southern province police commissioner Goldwin Phiri reported clashes with police in the towns of Monze, Chombe and Mazabuka.

"We don't know where we are headed, but ... there will be trouble," a civil servant in Mazabuka told DPA news agency. 

Al Jazeera's Tania Page, reporting from the capital, Lusaka, said Hichilema "has really been able to cast a lot of doubt over the process", raising many complaints about the campaign period and vote-counting process.

"Some of that has been supported by international observer missions," Page said.

"Most particularly, the European Union, which agreed with his claims that the state media is heavily biased towards the government."

The EU also supported Hichilema's view that police had acted with political motives at times, and had also cracked down "quite harshly" on some of his political gatherings, our correspondent said.mbia said on Monday.