20110920
Reuters
LUSAKA (Reuters) - Zambians voted on Tuesday in a closely contested election between incumbent Rupiah Banda and opposition leader Michael Sata, who has been a vocal critic of foreign investment in Africa's biggest copper producer, most notably from China.

Crowds of youths chanting "We want change, we want change" mobbed 74-year-old Sata as he visited a polling station in the capital, Lusaka, where frustration was building among voters queueing at booths that failed to open on time.

Banda's Movement for Multi-Party Democracy, which has run the nation since the end of one-party rule in 1991, claims most of its support in the countryside where farmers have benefited from a hugely successful agricultural subsidy scheme.

Sata's strength is in the capital, Lusaka, and the northern Copper Belt, where many people complain about receiving meagre returns from more than five years of strong economic growth.

Banda, also 74, is due to vote in his constituency outside the capital this morning.

Voting is due to end at 1600 GMT and the first results from urban areas, where Sata and his Patriotic Front (PF) party look set to perform strongly, are likely to arrive late this evening.

Campaigning officially ended on Sunday for a 24-hour cooling off period after six weeks of mudslinging and rhetoric that sometimes touched on the growing clout of foreign mining firms.

Banda appealed for a peaceful election on national television on Sunday night, and police are out in force to prevent any violence even though the southern African country of 13 million is not known for political unrest.

Its kwacha currency has risen more than 3 percent against the dollar in the last week. Analysts say investors are confident there will be none of the post-poll fighting that has blighted recent African elections from Ivory Coast to Kenya.

An opinion poll published a week ago suggested Banda held a narrow lead over Sata, nicknamed King Cobra because of his vicious tongue, although a number of floating voters meant an upset was still possible.

YOUTH VOTE

A large turnout of young voters, many of whom are unemployed, is likely to play into the hands of Sata, who lost to Banda by just 35,000 votes, or two percent of the electorate, in a 2008 presidential run-off.

Banda, a former diplomat and confidante of first president Kenneth Kaunda, has won accolades abroad for opening up the country to international investment and ensuring mining policies are clear and consistent.

Sata, whose career includes work in British car assembly plants, toned down his criticism of Chinese investment this week, telling Reuters on Friday that he would keep Zambia's strong diplomatic and commercial ties with Beijing if he won.

Chinese firms have become big players in the former British colony's $13 billion economy, with total investments by the end of 2010 topping $2 billion, according to Chinese embassy data.

Banda and Sata have pledged hefty spending on Zambia's woefully inadequate infrastructure, raising concerns about elevated government spending at a time of potential weakness in the price of copper, its economic mainstay.

An alliance between Sata and another opposition party, the UPND, crumbled this year, improving the chances of a new full five-year term for Banda, who moved into the presidency after the 2008 death of his predecessor, Levy Mwanawasa.