Post date: Sep 20, 2011 12:16:53 PM
Angry voters set fire to elections material after a polling station failed to open on time, as Zambians vote in a closely contested election.
LUSAKA, ZAMBIA (SEPTEMBER 20, 2011) REUTERS -
Angry voters in Zambia torched electoral material after a polling station opened late on Tuesday (September 20).
Zambians were voting in a closely contested election between incumbent Rupiah Banda and opposition leader Michael Sata, who has been a vocal critic of foreign investment in Africa's biggest copper producer, most notably from China.Police said some people tried to disrupt the polling.
"This confusion is not by the electorates there. It's just from an unknown group from outside who started throwing stones inside there just to disrupt the peaceful voting process," said commanding police officer, Mlulakeni Zulu.
Crowds of youths chanting "We want change, we want change" mobbed 74-year-old Sata as he visited a polling station in the capital, Lusaka, where frustration was building among voters queuing at booths that failed to open on time.
"This station opened two hours late. So now if the station opens two hours late, it has to close two hours later. If it has to close two hours later, ECZ (Electoral Commission of Zambia) did not plan for this," Sata said.
Banda's Movement for Multi-Party Democracy, which has run the nation since the end of one-party rule in 1991, claims most of its support in the countryside where farmers have benefited from a hugely successful agricultural subsidy scheme.
Sata's strength is in the capital, Lusaka, and the northern Copper Belt, where many people complain about receiving meagre returns from more than five years of strong economic growth.
Banda, also 74, is due to vote in his constituency outside the capital this morning.
Voting is due to end at 1600 GMT. The first results from urban areas, where Sata and his Patriotic Front (PF) party look set to perform strongly, are likely to arrive late this evening.
Banda has appealed for a peaceful election on national television. Police are out in force to prevent any violence even though the southern African country of 13 million is not known for political unrest.
Its kwacha currency has risen more than three percent against the dollar in the past week. Analysts say investors are confident there will be none of the post-poll fighting that has blighted recent African elections from Ivory Coast to Kenya.
Chinese firms have become big players in the former British colony's 13 billion U.S. Dollar (USD) economy, with total investments by the end of 2010 topping 2 billion USD, according to Chinese embassy data.
Banda and Sata have pledged hefty spending on Zambia's woefully inadequate infrastructure, raising concerns about elevated government spending at a time of potential weakness in the price of copper, its economic mainstay.