20110923
Reuters
LUSAKA (Reuters) - Zambian opposition leader Michael Sata was declared the winner of the presidential election on Friday, defeating incumbent Rupiah Banda to head Africa's biggest copper producer after polls marred by violence.




Sata, 74 and nicknamed "King Cobra" because of his sharp tongue, toned down his rhetoric against foreign mining firms, especially from China, in the closing stages of the six-week campaign but his victory could still cloud the investment outlook.

Zambia's kwacha fell to a 12-month-low of 5,030 against the dollar after Sata's victory and traders said it would remain vulnerable until he has given clearer indications on his future policies.

Sata, the leader of the Patriotic Front (PF), told Reuters last week he would maintain strong commercial and diplomatic ties with China and would not introduce a minerals windfall tax, but implied he might impose some form of capital controls to keep dollars in the country.

Chief Justice Ernest Sakala declared Sata the winner after he received 1,150,045 votes compared with Banda's 961,796 with 95.3 percent of constituencies counted. Sata received 43 percent of the vote also contested by many minor parties.

Rupiah Banda, 74 and leader of the Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) party that has run Zambia since one-party rule ended in 1991, was expected to make a statement about the vote.

Supporters of Sata, who will be sworn in as president later on Friday, celebrated the win.

"At long last the will of the people has been respected. The people wanted change," said street vendor Peter Musonda.

Sata secured support among the youth on the back of campaign promises of creating more jobs and his criticism that Banda's government failed to let ordinary Zambians share in the proceeds from the country's copper mines.

"We are now a relieved nation. God has finally answered our prayer," said Emmanuel Mwanza, a student at the Zambian Open University.

Election monitors from the European Union and regional grouping the Southern African Development Community said the polls were largely fair although there was some violence.

Youths fought running battles with riot police on Thursday in the towns of Ndola and Kitwe, 250 km (150 miles) north of Lusaka, setting fire to vehicles and markets in the normally peaceful mining heartland.

CHINA FACTOR

Chinese companies have become major players in Zambia's economy, with total investments by the end of 2010 topping $2 billion, according to data from the Chinese embassy.

But Sata accused Chinese mining firms in the earlier stages of the campaign of creating slave labour conditions with scant regard for safety or the local culture.

Sata had strong backing in urban areas and the economic centre in the Copper Belt, while Banda, a farmer and former diplomat, relied on votes from rural areas.

Analysts said younger voters also helped propel Sata to victory with youth using the ballot box to bring about change in a continent that has seen the long-standing rulers of Egypt and Tunisia toppled by mass street protests.

In 2008 Sata lost to Banda by just 35,000 votes, or 2 percent of the electorate, in a presidential run-off triggered by the death in office of Levy Mwanawasa.