Opposition to challenge Banda’s Zambian election win

RUPIAH BANDA, a pro-business centrist, was sworn in as Zambia’s president yesterday after a narrow election win, but the main opposition party said it would challenge the result in court.

Banda’s victory, if allowed to stand, will be welcomed by foreign lenders and investors, who praise his government’s conservative fiscal policies. Zambia’s economy has grown an average 5% a year since 2002, buoyed by a mining boom.

He had campaigned as the heir to late president Levy Mwanawasa, who died in August, and pledged to make no dramatic policy changes if elected in Thursday’s poll.

Opposition leader Michael Sata also promised to pursue a pro-growth agenda, but concerns lingered about the strident anti-investment tone of his last campaign for the presidency in 2006.

“I think Banda is the right choice because he has a high level of maturity and good credentials for economic management,” said Oliver Saasa, a political commentator based in the capital Lusaka.

Banda will face pressure to do more to reduce poverty and improve government services, especially in rural areas that have failed to benefit from the economic boom, he said.

Banda won 40% of the 1.79 million votes cast versus 38% for Sata, the leader of the Patriotic Front, according to final results released by Zambia’s electoral commission.

A third candidate took the bulk of remaining votes. The margin of victory was 35,209 votes.

Sata and the Front branded the election a fraud and said it would contest the result.

The opposition’s suspicions were aroused by a late surge of votes that erased Sata’s early lead. The Front said the poll was marked by discrepancies between vote tallies and the number of voters on registration lists. Sata made the same fraud charge two years ago when he lost the presidential election to Mwanawasa.