Post date: Sep 23, 2011 12:55:42 PM
Zambian president Rupiah Banda conceded electoral defeat on Friday (September 23) to opposition leader Michael Sata and urged his supporters to accept the result peacefully.
LUSAKA, ZAMBIA (SEPTEMBER 23, 2011) REUTERS - Zambian president Rupiah Banda conceded electoral defeat on Friday (September 23) to opposition leader Michael Sata of the Patriotic Front (PF) and urged his supporters in Africa's biggest copper producer to accept the result peacefully.
"We will accept the results. We are a democratic party and we know no other way. It is not for us to deny the Zambian people, we never rigged, we never cheated, we never knowingly abused state funds. We simply did what we thought was best for Zambia. I hope the next government will act likewise in years to come." Banda told a news conference, with his wife Thandiwe sitting at his side.
Zambian opposition leader Michael Sata was declared the winner in Zambia's presidential election early on Friday, ousting incumbent Rupiah Banda in polls marred by public violence.
Sata, 74 and nicknamed "King Cobra" because of his venomous tongue, campaigned on his opposition to foreign mining firms, especially from China who have become major players in the Zambian economy.
Chief Justice Ernest Sakala declared Sata the winner after he received 1,150,045 votes compared to Banda's 961,796 with 95.3 percent of constituencies counted. Sata received 43 percent of the vote also contested by many minor parties.
"I urge you all now to rally behind your new president, yes our new president. Yes, we may have different ideas but we both want the same thing a better Zambia. Now is not the time for violence and retribution, now is the time to unite and to build tomorrows Zambia together," added Banda.
Rupiah Banda, 74, is leader of the Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) party that has run Zambia since one-party rule ended in 1991.
Analysts said Sata, would almost certainly review contracts with foreign companies struck by Banda's administration, and could overhaul the country's mining, trade and banking regulations.
Sata supporters spilled into the streets in the capital Lusaka after the announcement, singing and chanting in celebration.
On election day, youths fought running battles with riot police in the towns of Ndola and Kitwe, 250 km (150 miles) north of Lusaka, setting fire to vehicles and markets in the normally peaceful southern African country's mining heartland.