Symbolic imageZambia halts presidential vote count after attacks on poll workers
Zambia's electoral commission has suspended the count in the presidential election after allegations of violence and fraud. President Hakainde Hichilema is seeking a second term.
The commission announced the halt on Friday, 14 August, a day after Zambians voted on Thursday, 13 August, the New York Times reported. It said poll workers had been attacked and ballots had been stolen. The available reporting, brief in both cases, does not say who carried out the attacks, how many ballots were involved, or when counting is to resume. The Economist carried the suspension only as a single line in its daily world brief.
Debt, copper and a feud with the Lungu family
The ballot was dominated by the country's debt burden, inflation and revenues from copper. The campaign was also overshadowed by Hichilema's feud with the family of his rival Edgar Lungu, who died in 2025.