Election observers question poll result

The European Union (EU) and the Carter Centre this week expressed grave doubts about the authenticity of the official results of Zambia's general elections held in December, and called for a speedy judicial review of the results to ease lingering political tensions. The two organisations had earlier expressed concern at pre-voting manipulation of the process, and widespread chaos on polling day which saw thousands of people disenfranchised. They said in separate statements that further investigations had revealed that the election results did not reflect the will of the electorate. "In view of the administrative failures on polling day, the serious flaws in the counting and tabulation procedures, together with the close outcome of the elections, we are not confident that the declared results represent the wishes of the Zambian people on polling day," EU Chief Observer Michael Meadowcroft told reporters on Tuesday. "We cannot avoid the conclusion that the official published results, which contain such substantial unexplained anomalies, are unsafe." "We strongly recommend that the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) publishes the voting figures from each polling station as an important contribution towards transparency. We hope that the courts will deal speedily with the election petitions," Meadowcroft added. Three opposition parties – Anderson Mazoka's United Party for National Development (UPND), Christon Tembo's Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD), and Godfrey Miyanda's Heritage Party – have filed petitions challenging the results of the presidential poll, which they claim was rigged by the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD). Forty losing parliamentary candidates have also filed petitions challenging the results of the elections. The EU's final position on the polls coincides with that of the Carter Centre, which said in a statement released earlier that "large unexplained discrepancies" in the results released by constituency election officials and the ECZ had robbed the process of some integrity. "In an election such as this one where the margin of victory is small, such discrepancies take on greater significance. Cumulatively, the discrepancies may have a major impact on the election results and even affect the outcome, and therefore must be examined seriously," the Centre said. Political analysts said the observations of the two international observer groups were likely to give added ammunition to the opposition, which will be hard pressed to prove in court that the elections were rigged by the MMD when hearings into their petitions start later this month. The main opposition parties have, meanwhile, resolved to weaken what they perceive as an illegitimate government by refusing to cooperate with it in the parliament, where they hold a simple majority. The observers' reports are also expected to strain the uneasy relations that have existed between the government and western donors in the aftermath of the elections. President Levy Mwanawasa and other government officials have accused the EU of "creating anarchy" in the country by questioning the legitimacy of the polls. They claim the EU rejected the results only because their favoured candidate, the UPND's Mazoka, had lost. The EU had denied the allegations.