LUSAKA - Zambian opposition leader Michael Sata yesterday launched a court challenge to demand a recount of the vote in the presidential election, creating uncertainty in one of Africa's most stable countries.
Mr Sata, who lost the election on October 30th to Rupiah Banda, has branded the poll to find a successor to the late president Levy Mwanawasa a fraud.
"I know that (my colleagues) are currently in court filing a petition. I am now working on some more documents which we will submit to the court next week," Winter Kabimba, lawyer for Mr Sata's Patriotic Front (PF) party, told Reuters.
Zambia has been one of the most politically stable nations in Africa. However, a prolonged election dispute and anti-government riots could unsettle investors at a time when Africa's largest copper producer is feeling the pinch from the global financial crisis.
Tensions have been rising in the southern African country, which won praise from western donors for Mr Mwanawasa for his conservative economic management and anti-corruption campaign.
Mr Banda has vowed to continue with Mr Mwanawasa's policies, which have kept growth at an average of 5 per cent per year since 2002.
A police official said that a permit for PF supporters regarding a protest scheduled for today had been cancelled. Zambian police arrested 38 people on Thursday after violent protests over the arrest of a priest and radio presenter in the country's second-biggest city, Kitwe, a police spokesman said.
Rioters attacked a police station, caused damage at a milling company, barricaded streets and set cars alight in Kitwe, 350km north of Lusaka. Police said the arrest of Frank Bwalya, a priest and manager of the Catholic-run Radio Icengelo, which has been critical of Mr Banda's government, sparked the riots.
Mr Mwanawasa died of a stroke in August, two years into his second five-year presidential term.
- (Reuters)