Zambia's Hichilema re-elected president as main rival in hiding over alleged threats

Zambia's President Hakainde Hichilema has been re-elected for a second five-year term after securing a 60% share of the vote, the electoral commission has announced.

Hichilema's win was widely expected, with his closest challenger Brian Mundubile getting 38% of the votes cast. The remaining 12 candidates trailed far behind.

Mundubile, 55, has said he will mount a legal challenge to the results, saying his NRPUP party had evidence that there were voting irregularities.

Earlier, the party confirmed to the BBC that Mundubile had gone into hiding in a "secure location under the protection of an international human rights body due to threats made against him".

Local media had reported that Mundubile and his running mate Makebi Zulu were at a UN agency in the capital, Lusaka, fearing arrests.

It came after some leading opposition figures were arrested in a raid on Friday who the authorities accused of plotting an insurrection. Mundubile called the claim a fabrication.

In a statement, Mundubile said the results were not "a true reflection of what took place across this election".

"We have evidence. We have records. We have documented what we could as events unfolded. We will now place that evidence before the appropriate legal institutions and pursue every lawful avenue available to us within the prescribed period," he said.

After being declared the winner, Hichilema, 64, said in a statement: "We are truly humbled by the trust you have placed in our hands."

He said the election showed that Zambia was a place of peace, law and order and a "democratic nation that settles our differences at the ballot box, and nowhere else".

"To those citizens who preferred the ideas presented by our opponents, we hear you, and we will continue to work for you," he added.

Hundreds of Hichilema's supporters, dressed in the red colours of his United Party for National Development (UPND)flooded the streets of the capital to celebrate after the results declaration.

Zambia has a record of peaceful transfers of power. Since the return to multiparty democracy in 1991, presidential transitions have occurred through the ballot box.

In his statement on Tuesday, Mundubile rejected government allegations linking the NRPUP or people associated with it to any form of insurgency or threat to state security.

"We reject those allegations absolutely. Our campaign was built on two words: hope and peace."

He stressed he was not calling for violence or retaliation: "I ask every supporter of our party… to remain calm. Do not allow anger to destroy what we have built."

He repeated allegations about a raid on his home in Lusaka, saying armed men entered the property, shots were fired, and former minister Mutotwe Kafwaya was shot in his presence.

Kafwaya was still missing and his family had received no adequate explanation of his whereabouts or condition, Mundubile said

"A man was shot. That man is now missing. His family deserves answers. Zambia deserves answers."

On Monday he had described to the BBC how armed personnel had knocked down the gate of his home with an armoured vehicle, broke doors and windows and opened fire.

"They came in to kill us," he said.

He denied allegations that high-grade military weapons were being stored at the house as well as the presence of any militia as the authorities had alleged.

Mulambo Haimbe, Hichilema's election agent and a senior UPND member, said Mundubile's remarks regarding the incident were "not correct".

He told the BBC's Newsday programme on Tuesday that criminal charges were being put forward against those arrested.

He also said the courts would address the various matters should the opposition party challenge the election outcome.

A day after polling, the electoral commission briefly suspended counting and the announcement of results, citing reports of violence targeting polling staff and the theft of marked ballot papers in some areas.

The suspension was lifted the same day.

Regional and international observers described the election day as largely peaceful and urged all sides to remain calm and respect the official process.

They did however raise concerns about late electoral reforms, media freedom and access to the media in the run-up to the poll.

Samuel Tembenu, a former minister from Malawi, who was leading the observer mission from the southern African bloc (Sadc), is quoted by the AFP news agency as saying that his team had "recorded, but could not verify, reports of intimidation, assault, abduction and damage to property in five provinces".

Observers also expressed concern over the brief suspension of the vote counting, saying it risked the credibility of the process as well as voter confidence.

The EU observation mission warned at the weekend that restrictions on the opposition in the campaigning period may have contributed to an "uneven contest".

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