Zambian President Lungu says he won’t petition election results

Lusaka, Zambia | Xinhua | Outgoing Zambian President Edgar Lungu on Wednesday said he won’t file a petition to challenge the election results of last week’s elections.

Lungu lost by more than 1 million votes to Hakainde Hichilema who will be inaugurated next Tuesday following the Aug. 12 presidential elections.

Lungu, who had earlier described the election as not being free and fair, said he won’t petition the results because it will be a sheer waste of time.

In remarks delivered during the burial of two members of the outgoing ruling Patriotic Front (PF) in Solwezi district in the northwestern part of the country, the Zambian leader said party members have been pressurizing him to petition the election results but he has told them that it will be a waste of time.

“I felt under pressure by some of my colleagues that we should consider going to court and petition the election results and I said it is a waste of time,” he said.

He said he doesn’t want unnecessary tension that may occur during the 14 days in which the petition was required to be heard like what happened following the 2016 elections petitioned by the then opposition leader Hichilema, adding party members who felt like petitioning the parliamentary or mayoral election results could go ahead.

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Xinhua