Vote counting was underway in Zambia on Friday after a hard-fought general election that saw sporadic clashes and troop reinforcements dispatched to three provinces.

The ballot is expected to be the tightest yet in the third successive standoff between President Edgar Lungu, 64, and veteran opposition candidate Hakainde Hichilema, 59.

Partial and regional tallies started to trickle in on Friday, with final consolidated results expected by Sunday, although Lungu’s party hinted it was heading for victory.

Thursday’s vote presented a test of democracy in the usually peaceful southern African nation country of more than 17 million people.

Rising living costs appear to have sapped support for Lungu, who is accused of growing increasingly iron-fisted since taking office in 2015.

Hichilema is vying for the top job for the sixth time, this time with the backing of 10 opposition parties.

Violence occurred in North-Western province, a Hichilema stronghold, where two people including a chairman of the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) party were killed, Lungu announced late Thursday.

He blaming Hichilema’s United Party for National Development (UPND) party.

Zambia’s electoral commission has launched an investigation into the chairman’s murder.

The UPND distanced itself from the case, calling it a “distraction” tactic.

The PF also alleges some of its agents were beaten and chased from polling stations in Southern province.

Lungu, who had deployed the military following pre-election clashes, reinforced troops in those two provinces and in the Western province.

He has already inferred that election-day violence “effectively rendered the elections in… three provinces not free and fair”.

Despite this warning, PF chief Davies Mwila said the party’s own calculation of votes cast in various polling stations “show that President Edgar Lungu is in the lead.”

“We are confident that we shall carry the day,” he said.

Nic Cheeseman, a British political scientist, tweeted on Friday that there were fears Lungu was “exaggerating the extent of violence and instability in opposition regions” in order to justify invalidating results there.

Social media access has been restricted since Hichilema cast his vote in Lusaka, raising eyebrows among the electorate.

Most shops were shut in the capital on Friday where a burning tyre barricade was seen along a highway.

Key regions

Parliamentary and local government elections took place at the same time as the presidential ballot.

But long queues meant that voting continued long after the official closing time of 6 pm (1600 GMT) — in some cases, the last ballot was cast nine hours afterward.

More than seven million people were registered to vote.

The outcome is expected to hinge on results in Lusaka, a bustling city of more than 3.3 million, and in the central Copperbelt province — key to the economy in Africa’s second-largest copper producer.

Hichilema, who is running against Lungu for the third time, only lost by around 100,000 votes in 2016 and an even narrower margin in a by-election the previous year.

Poll watchers have warned of possible unrest when the results are out.

“The real test will be in the counting process” and whether Lungu will accept a possible eventual defeat, said independent Zambian political economist Trevor Simumba.

Although violence has flared in past elections, all of Zambia’s transitions of power have been peaceful since the adoption of multi-party democracy in 1990.

-AFP

After Tuesday’s botched efforts by Abdullahi Maje, the Chairman of Suleja Local Government Area, on Thursday afternoon at about 2pm, Maje led a group of thugs to invade the national headquarters of Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ÀLGON).

Hon. Maje has since been apprehended and handed over to law enforcement agencies, alongside his cohorts.

The National President of ALGON, Hon Alabi Kolade David has, in his reaction, called for calm as the security agencies are on top of the matter.

Hon. Abdullahi Maje, who told reporters in Abuja on Wednesday after a failed attempt to forcefully takeover the ALGON National Headquarters that they could not resume office on Tuesday despite a Federal High Court, Abuja, order has continued to claim to be the Chairman of an Interim Management Committee (IMC) of ALGON despite the non-existence of such organ in the Association’s constitution.

The Suleja council boss who is not a member of the National Executive Council (NEC) of ALGON has continued to rely on an order of the court obtained on March 29, 2021 to stop ALGON General Assembly which had on March 24, 2021 re-elected the Hon. Alabi kolade David led NEC.

The South East Coordinator of the APC Ward-To-Ward Ambassadors (WWA), Comrade Akunwata Ejoh Ojiba (Onwa) has urged those of voting age in Anambra State to take advantage of the ongoing Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) exercise being conducted by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and register to enable them exercise their franchise.

Making the call while speaking with newsmen in Onitsha, Comrade Ojib, who was the defunct Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) Governorship Candidate in the 2016 Anambra Governorship election, encouraged the staff of INEC to continue to be diligent in the exercise to be able to get a good record of voters in the state.

Comrade Ojiba then appealed to the members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to shelve its latest policy of shutting down the South East every Monday, given the current harsh economic realities biting hard on not only Ndigbo but also the entire nation.

The WWA South East Coordinator added that there is no economic wisdom in shutting down the region as virtually over half of the population of the zone in Igboland depends on daily income to feed their families and dependent ones.

Comrade Ojiba also enjoined all members of APC Ward-To-Ward Ambassadors (WWA) in Anambra State to close ranks and work with unity of purpose towards ensuring victory of the Andy Ubah governorship aspirations to usher in a new era in governance in the state.

The Federal Government has signed a partnership with the National Orientation Agency as one of its key partners in its quest to raise awareness for its National Social Investment Programmes.

The announcement was made by the Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development Minister, Sadiya Umar Farouq in Abuja at the weekend.

At the opening of the training for Master Trainers on Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme GEEP 2.0, the Minister said the move became necessary to raise awareness to positively change attitudes, values, and behaviors.

“I must say the agency has shown outstanding dedication towards effective implementation of the NSIP programmes. It is in this vein that the FMHADMSD entered into partnership with NOA to appoint the Community Orientation and Mobilization officers as GEEP Desk Officers in all the 774 local government local areas across the country”.

With NOA identified as one of the organs of Government agencies largely spread across all states and Local Governments with the capacity to adequately engage, mobilize and sensitize the general public on Government programmes and policies, it became imperative that the agency was brought in as a strategic partner.

To this end, the ministry in conjunction with NOA has appointed Community Orientation and Mobilization officers to be trained as GEEP Local Government Desk Officers in all the 774 local government levels areas across the 36 states and the FCT.

These officers will sensitize communities on the GEEP programmes, register interested beneficiaries of TraderMoni, MarketMoni and FarmerMoni.

They will also collect and collate necessary data for the programme, provide necessary feedback to the programme coordinators at State and Federal Levels while also encouraging active participation of the programme.

She thanked the NSIP team and staff of the Ministry for their dedication and hard work as well as other partners towards the fight the fight against poverty.

The two-day intensive interactive training which ended on Saturday in Abuja provided an understanding  and insight to the processes, drivers, threats and opportunities associated with core GEEP activities especially the newly introduced structure of top-bottom representation,  from the Federal through State and Local Government levels respectively. It also informed them on the roles and responsibilities of the COMO’s, how to register and enlighten the target beneficiaries,  how to access the GEEP loans in furtherance to helping to eradicate poverty and generate employment throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

As political parties, including the All Progressive Congress (APC), and candidates of political parties prepare for the forthcoming Anambra governorship election in November 2021, the APC Ward-To-Ward Ambassadors (WWA), Anambra State Chapter, has concluded arrangements for a workshop to enlighten and mobilise the electorate to participate actively in the polls.

Addressing Local Government Coordinators from the 21 Local Government Areas in the state, the Zonal Coordinator of APC Ward-To-Ward Ambassadors, South East Zone, Comrade Akunwata Ejoh Ojiba disclosed that the organisation has the mandate to penetrate the grassroots.

This, he said, the group is set to achieve through massive mobilisation of the electorate to vote and support Senator Andy Ubah, to become the next Governor of Anambra State.

He urged female members of APC Ward-To-Ward Ambassadors to intensify efforts towards convincing more women to identify with the WWA.

He added that the time has come for all members to close ranks and work with unity of purpose towards encouraging the victory of Senator Andy Ubah in the forthcoming Governorship elections in Anambra state.

Also speaking, a former House of Representative Member for Onitsha Federal Constituency, Hon. Gozie Agbakoba, stressed the need of working out strategies and roadmaps that would ensure victory for the party at the forthcoming elections.

Hon. Gozie Agbakoba, who is also a member of Trustee of the Ward-To-Ward Ambassadors (WWA), also stressed the need for the organization to imbibe the modern trend and concept of voting by ensuring that only capable hands are assigned duties at polling booths.

He stated that data driven strategies should be adopted, adding that the WWA should strive toward mobilizing potential voters to participate in the ongoing voters’ registration exercises.

Comrade Ojiba, who was a former Anambra State governorship candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), also stressed the need for APC faithful to understand their polling codes.

Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) has called for a more virile opposition party in the country, saying the country’s main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has failed in that duty.

The CNPP in a statement issued on Thursday and signed by its Secretary General, Chief Willy Ezugwu, noted that “unless a virile opposition party evolves ahead of the 2023 general elections, the country will have to return to a one party system, which is very unhealthy for our democracy.

“Evidently, we are gradually returning to the dark days of one party state before the All Progressives Congress (APC) and their allies metamorphosed into a strong opposition party and gave Nigerians an alternative party platform in 2015.  

“The APC has been in power for six years but the lives of the ordinary person are not getting better, increasing the yarning for a new strong opposition party as possible choice against the ruling APC and the PDP.

“Rule of law has become a big challenge as the APC government has jettisoned that basic ingredient of democracy and have continued to manipulate democratic processes and have refused to obey several court orders in the last six years.

“So many valid court judgments have been disregarded by the APC with instances of the party’s failure to abide by its own party constitution in many instances till the recent Supreme Court verdict on its National Chairmanship position.

“We therefore call on all opposition parties in the country to come together and form alliances or mergers to provide an alternative political party platform as both PDP and the APC have failed the masses of Nigeria as main opposition party and ruling party controlling both the executive and the legislature.

“Obviously, the PDP under Uche Secondus’ leadership has failed to convince Nigerian electorates and the masses that the party is ready to provide itself as alternative in 2023 as even its Board of Trustees member just defected to the ruling APC”, the CNPP noted.