Post date: Sep 10, 2011 4:48:53 PM
Zambia's incumbent president Rupiah Banda is leading ahead of elections later this month but barely -- with 41 percent vs 38 percent for his rival Michael Sata, an opinion poll published by an independent research organisation showed.
LUSAKA, ZAMBIA (SEPTEMBER 8, 2011) REUTERS - Zambian President Rupiah Banda has a narrow lead over opposition leader Michael Sata ahead of September 20 elections although a number of undecided voters mean an upset is still possible, according to an opinion poll published this week.
The survey by the Centre for Policy Dialogue, an independent research organisation, showed Banda and his Movement for Multi-Party Democracy party with 41 percent of the vote against 38 percent for Sata's Patriotic Front.
Six percent of voters were undecided, and the rest were committed to smaller parties, the poll said.
"These are people's opinions and they should go out there and try to prove them wrong, not us, but prove the public opinion to be wrong but as far as we are concerned this is what is available on the ground. We have been there and it's up to them to take it or leave it," said Neo Simutanyi, executive director for the polling group.
Banda, who has presided over more than five years of strong economic growth in Africa's biggest copper producer, was shown broadly in front in the countryside, and Sata in the capital, Lusaka, and the northern Copperbelt.
An alliance between Sata and another opposition party, the UPND, crumbled this year, improving the chances of a new full term for Banda, who moved into the presidency after the 2008 death of his predecessor, Levy Mwanawasa.
Sata, a gruff populist who has criticised Asian investment in the mining sector, gave Banda a very close run in the former British colony's 2008 election.
Sata's party officials say the poll does not truly express the popularity of Sata, who they say is destined to win the upcoming polls.
"I want to say that the Patriotic Front is winning this election. We've got our numbers, we don't even need anybody to give us you know any, any poll results or surveys. We 've done our home work, we've been ready, we've been preparing for this elections for the last two years. So this is not an election in which we are walking... you know, like we have done in the past -- blindfolded," said Wynter Kabimba, secretary general for the PF party.
Since independence in 1964, Zambian elections have tended to pass off peacefully, although the kwacha has weakened over the last month, in part because of the political uncertainty and elevated government spending.
Banda prides himself on his farming roots and is a former associate of Zambia's first president, Kenneth Kaunda, whose reliance on Soviet-style central planning drove the economy into the ground in the 1980s.
He has since abandoned socialism in favour of free-market economics to the point that his administration is looking to launch a debut 500 million US dollar eurobond shortly after the election.