{"id":27888,"date":"2016-08-20T03:36:04","date_gmt":"2016-08-20T03:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/zambian-president-s-victory-challenged-delaying\/"},"modified":"2016-08-20T03:35:46","modified_gmt":"2016-08-20T03:35:46","slug":"zambian-president-s-victory-challenged-delaying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/zambian-president-s-victory-challenged-delaying\/","title":{"rendered":"Zambian president’s victory challenged delaying inauguration"},"content":{"rendered":"

{The main opposition party in Zambia has filed a court petition against the re-election of President Edgar Lungu.}<\/p>\n

The United Party for National Development alleges the poll on 11 August was rigged and wants a recount.<\/p>\n

Mr Lungu was due to be sworn in next Tuesday after securing 50.35% of the vote, avoiding a second round.<\/p>\n

But according to Zambia’s constitution, any inauguration has to be delayed until the Constitutional Court rules on the case.<\/p>\n

Zambia’s election commission has insisted that the poll was free and fair.
\nBut it also described the level of political violence ahead of the elections as unprecedented.<\/p>\n

It was forced to suspend campaigning in the capital, Lusaka, for 10 days because of the unrest.<\/p>\n

Opposition candidate Hakainde Hichelema, who took 47,6% of the vote, told the BBC’s Focus on Africa radio programme that the election was stolen from him and did not reflect the will of the people.<\/p>\n

“The first respondent did not receive more than 50% of the total votes cast.The voter register was not credible and its non-availability before the elections compromised the transparency of the electoral process,” Reuters news agency quotes the petition as saying.<\/p>\n

The Constitutional Court has two weeks to rule on the petition.<\/p>\n

{{Edgar Lungu – Patriotic Front (PF)}}<\/p>\n

The 59-year-old lawyer became president in January 2015 in an election called after the death in office of President Michael Sata<\/p>\n

He served in Mr Sata’s government as minister for justice and defence<\/p>\n

Support base: Home area of Eastern province, the capital, Lusaka, and the <\/p>\n

Copperbelt plus the Bemba-speaking regions<\/p>\n

Known for ordering a national day of prayer last year to help combat the economic problems facing the country<\/p>\n

Married with six children, this election has been seen as a personal referendum on him<\/p>\n

The 54-year-old economist has contested nearly all elections in Zambia since 2006<\/p>\n

A wealthy businessman, he has a solid track record in the private sector<\/p>\n

Support base: Home region of Southern Province and is popular with younger voters<\/p>\n

Known for being Zambia’s second largest cattle rancher<\/p>\n

Commonly referred to by his initials HH, he is married with three children<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{The main opposition party in Zambia has filed a court petition against the re-election of President Edgar Lungu.} The United Party for National Development alleges the poll on 11 August was rigged and wants a recount. Mr Lungu was due to be sworn in next Tuesday after securing 50.35% of the vote, avoiding a second […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-27888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27888\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27888"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=27888"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=27888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}