Zambians flocked to the ballot boxes yesterday to elect just their third leader since independence in a crowded and close-run contest that analysts said was impossible to predict.
The two main opposition contenders alleged there had been state-sponsored attempts to rig the elections. But despite the claims, the poll was seen as an endorsement of democracy in the peaceful but poverty-stricken southern African nation.
Eleven candidates are fighting to replace President Frederick Chiluba, Zambia's diminutive ruler of 10 years. They include a millionaire businessman, a former army general and a TV evangelist.
Businessman Anderson Mazoka had a slim lead over the government candidate, Levy Mwanawasa, in the only opinion poll carried out last week. He led the allegations of vote-rigging yesterday.
"We hear people are being allowed to vote using 1996 voters' cards which are no longer valid. That is not acceptable," he told reporters after casting his ballot in the capital, Lusaka. The other main opposition contender, Christon Tembo, echoed his claim.
The opposition also criticised the Christmas poll as an attempt to ensure a low turnout, but there were reports of long queues at polling stations in Lusaka. The electoral commission estimated that over 80 per cent of voters would cast their ballots. Many voters said they were tired of the ruling Movement for Multi-party Democracy, which came to power on a wave of optimism in 1991 but has since been accused of gross mismanagement and corruption.
"There is a problem here and I want to change it. We don't have enough food or fertiliser. Clothes are expensive," farmer Ellen Muyoba told the Associated Press.
Results are not expected before the weekend. The victor will face the difficult task of turning around the economy, which has been devastated by disasters and gross mismanagement.
Zambia should be wealthy from its massive copper reserves in the north but instead the country is mired in poverty. The United Nations is currently feeding 1.3 million of the country's 10 million people.
Corruption in areas such as the botched privatisation of national mines has often been blamed for the economic woes, as well as natural phenomena such as last year's severe drought.
President Chiluba has followed many of the bitter prescriptions of the IMF and World Bank, and many donors are contributing heavily to the economy.
Zambia is one of Ireland's six priority beneficiaries for bilateral aid. However Zambian people, 80 per cent of whom live on less than a $1 a day, complain they have yet to see the benefits of those policies. But although it is poor, Zambia has developed into a maturing democracy under President Chiluba.