Zambian police fired tear gas Wednesday to disperse about 100 supporters of the leading opposition candidate, as a hotly-contested presidential election was extended into a third day. A number of Hakainde Hichilema’s supporters in the United Party for National Development were arrested and bundled into a police van, an AFP correspondent saw. Police initially asked the supporters to disperse but one of them shouted back at the officers, who then drove them off with batons and tear gas.
Hichilema is seen as the main challenger to ruling Patriotic Front party candidate Edgar Lungu in the contest to replace former president Michael Sata who died in office last October. At stake is the remaining year and a half of Sata’s five-year term in the copper-rich but impoverished southern African nation.
Announcing that voting would be extended, electoral officials said boats and ox-wagons would be deployed to get ballot papers to parts of the country hit by torrential rains.
Full Article: Zambia extends voting to third day | Daily Mail Online.
