Police say angry crowds threw stones and burned vehicles in violence that marred voting in Zambia.
Police spokeswoman Ndandula Siamana said that in one Lusaka neighborhood Tuesday, voters claimed they saw a man with pre-marked ballot papers. Siamana said a crowd burned the papers, as well as a truck and a small bar. A spokesman for the Electoral Commission of Zambia said the report of pre-marked ballot papers was not confirmed.
In a second incident in Lusaka, Siamana said voters angered because a polling station opened late threw rocks and set fire to five vehicles, among them a police car. No injuries or arrests were reported in either incident.
Zambians are choosing a president, 150 lawmakers and more than 1,000 municipal councilors. Zambia’s incumbent president is in a close race with a populist rival in elections Tuesday in this copper-rich southern African country.
Rupiah Banda is running for a new term of office after completing the term of his predecessor Levy Mwanawasa. Some analysts said Banda, who had been Mwanawasa’s vice president, benefited from voter sympathy when he won by just 35,000 votes following Mwanawasa’s sudden death.
Full Article: The Associated Press: Violence mars voting in Zambia.
