Zambia Election Concerns Rise as Vote Counting Resumes Amid Violence and Intimidation Reports

International observers monitoring Zambia’s presidential election have raised serious concerns regarding reports of intimidation and abductions. This comes after vote counting was temporarily suspended for several hours due to violence at polling stations.

Observer missions, including delegations from the European Union and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, called on Saturday for all political parties to tone down inflammatory statements as votes from Thursday’s general election were tallied.

Vote counting was halted on Friday following reports of violence directed at polling staff and the alleged theft of ballot papers. Counting resumed hours later after the electoral commission declared that the security threat to the electoral process had been contained, according to Al Jazeera’s Haru Mutasa, reporting from the capital, Lusaka.

Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema, 64, is seeking a second term under the ruling United Party for National Development (UPND). His main challenger is Brian Mundubile, a 55-year-old former minister in the previous Patriotic Front (PF) government who is running as the opposition candidate for the National Reconciliation Party for Unity and Prosperity (NRPUP).

Mundubile stated that the suspension raised legitimate fears, warning that the delay in counting could create an opportunity for interference and the manipulation of results. However, his UPND rivals strongly rejected the allegation. Mark Simuuwe, campaign media director for Hichilema, told Al Jazeera that the opposition was panicking, insisting that the results were legitimate and accusing Mundubile’s party of disruption.

Samuel Tembenu, a former Malawian justice minister who leads the regional SADC observer mission, noted that his team was unable to observe the counting and collection of results during the suspension period. He urged contestants, supporters, and stakeholders to remain calm, adding that the suspension caused uncertainty and anxiety. The SADC mission received unverified reports of intimidation, assault, abduction, and property damage across five provinces, which allegedly resulted in injuries and at least one fatality.

Michael McNamara, chief observer of the European Union’s observer mission in Zambia, stated that it is up to Zambian authorities to fully explain the decision-making behind the suspension. He also mentioned that the vote had unfolded against a backdrop of a constrained democratic space, pointing to the advantages of incumbency and heavily biased state media coverage.

Reinhold Lopatka, leader of the European Parliament’s observer delegation, described the pause as disproportionate given that only a small fraction of Zambia’s more than 13,000 polling stations were affected. He noted that his mission received reports of opposition figures facing intimidation by security forces, candidates withdrawing under pressure, and opposition rallies being broken up by violence.

Zambian police reported nine arrests over the killing of a 57-year-old polling agent in a township outside Lusaka on election day, while maintaining that voting otherwise passed off peacefully.

Mundubile has claimed victory by citing his party’s parallel vote count and alleging irregularities, including military personnel taking control of tallying centres in Mufulira, missing result forms, and instructions given to officials in North-Western Province to stop releasing results. Meanwhile, Hichilema has stopped short of declaring victory, noting that his campaign was seeing encouraging results as official counting continues.

The Electoral Commission of Zambia released its first batch of official partial results late Saturday evening at the National Results Centre. Hichilema led with 438,708 votes (52.6 percent), followed by Mundubile with 351,281 votes (42.1 percent), and Kelvin Bwalya of the Zambia Must Prosper party in a distant third with 3,965 votes. The commission cautioned that these figures are not yet final.

Al Jazeera’s Mutasa reported that police and soldiers in armed vehicles have been deployed in parts of Lusaka, leaving it unclear whether Friday's suspension will delay the final results announcement previously scheduled for Monday. The commission announced it will issue a further update on Sunday morning regarding the timing of the next results release.

Approximately 8.7 million people were registered to vote in Zambia, a nation of 22 million people rich in copper reserves with a long history of peaceful transfers of power.