Opposition's Sata named Zambia's new president

LUSAKA (AFP) - Populist opposition leader Michael Sata was named Zambia's new president Friday, after a campaign promising to help the nation's poor majority enjoy the country's recent economic growth.

The election was marred by riots in the capital Lusaka and the copper mining towns of Kitwe and Ndola, where two people died in the unrest sparked by anger at delays in the vote count from Tuesday's elections.

But observers said the violence had not compromised the polls, and outgoing President Rupiah Banda quickly conceded defeat, diminishing the chance of more unrest.

"Speaking for myself and my party, we will accept the results. We are a democratic party and we know no other way," Banda said in his farewell speech at State House.

"I have no ill feelings in my heart, there is no malice in my words. I wish him well in his years as president. I pray his policies will bear fruit," Banda said.

Sata was set to take his oath of office later Friday at the Supreme Court, after electoral authorities said he won with 43 percent of the vote against Banda's 36 percent.

His swearing-in will make Zambia one of the few countries in Africa to have two democratic transitions of power since independence.

Banda's Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) has ruled since Frederick Chiluba unseated independence leader Kenneth Kaunda in the first democratic elections in 1991.

But Chiluba's graft trial changed public perceptions of the party.

Convicted of corruption in a London court, he was acquitted in Lusaka. Banda's government refused to appeal, and he disbanded the anti-corruption team that had brought the case to trial.

In his farewell, Banda conceded his party may have made mistakes.

"Zambia was liberated by an MMD ideal but maybe we became complacent with our ideals. Maybe we did not listen, maybe we did not hear," he said.

Sata campaigned vowing to clean up graft and to spread Zambia's mineral wealth more evenly, a message that appeared to resonate with young voters.

His supporters' frustration at the slow pace of the vote count turned to violence Thursday in two key Copperbelt mining towns. Police there said two people were killed in riots that they had to break up with tear gas and water cannons.

One person died after being hit by a mini-bus during the riots, while another was apparently shot dead, provincial police chief Martin Malama told AFP.

Riots also erupted in several slums around the capital during balloting on Tuesday as Sata supporters alleged their opponents were trying to steal the vote.

Observers said they had not found any evidence to back up the claims of fraud and insisted the violence had not compromised the elections.

But EU monitors accused the MMD of having abused state resources, including the media and vehicles, during its campaign.

Although at 74 Sata is showing signs of his age, he tapped into the grievances of the youth and the urban poor who feel left out of the impressive economic growth in Africa's biggest copper producing nation.

The Patriotic Front has vowed to impose more taxes on mining revenues to help the nearly two thirds of Zambians living on less than two dollars a day.

Sata's critics fear that this strong-willed firebrand, who has openly expressed his admiration for Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, could prove to be an authoritarian president.

But analysts have said they expect few major policy changes from a man who has muted many of his toughest stances in recent years, despite his populist appeal.

"Clearly, they will want to make some changes from the MMD government, and it seems as if the most likely change will be to mining taxation," Citibank said in a market commentary.

"But what the form this will take is not clear, nor whether the outcome will necessarily be a negative one."