ZAMBIA: OPPOSITION WINS PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Michael Sata, the populist leader of Zambia’s opposition, was declared the country’s next president early Friday, after a tense election marred by outbursts of violence that left two people dead.

Sata’s own supporters, fearful that President Rupiah Banda’s camp was trying to steal the vote, were behind much of the unrest.

But as Chief Justice Ernest Sakala declared his victory shortly after midnight, they poured into the streets of Lusaka cheering, dancing and honking horns. Riot police stood by as the crowd chanted “Let’s go Sata! Let’s go!”

“This is the result that the Zambian people have been expecting for a very long time. Finally this is it,” said Edward Mwalimu, a university lecturer who joined the throng. The electoral commission said Sata had won with 43 percent of the vote to Banda’s 36 percent, with a handful of constituencies still counting ballots.

His swearing-in was expected around midday Friday, which will make Zambia one of the few countries in Africa to have two democratic transitions of power since independence.

Banda’s Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) has ruled since Frederick Chiluba unseated independence leader Kenneth Kaunda in the first democratic elections in 1991.