Challenger 'wins Zambia presidency'

The chairwoman of the Electoral Commission of Zambia said challenger Michael Sata has defeated the incumbent in presidential elections.

Irene Mambilima announced early today that with counts completed from nearly all the country’s 150 constituencies, Mr Sata had won with 1,150,045 votes, or 43% of the total.

President Rupiah Banda had 961,796 votes, or 36.1%. Eight other candidates shared the remainder.

Mr Banda’s party, of which Mr Sata had been a member until a 2001 leadership dispute, had been in power for two decades.