Clashes heighten concerns ahead of Zambia election

Lusaka (AFP) - The two leading contenders in Zambia's presidential election condemned Tuesday fresh outbreaks of violence between their supporters as concerns grow that the relatively stable country could face worsening unrest.

Just 18 months after President Edgar Lungu narrowly won a snap election, he and his main rival Hakainde Hichilema face off again in Thursday's polls in a field of nine candidates.

The stakes are high with Lungu battling to retain office secured only last year, and Hichilema pushing to finally secure victory after four previous attempts.

Only 27,757 votes -- less than two percentage points -- separated the two candidates in the 2015 vote.

With new constitutional rules demanding that the winner needs more than 50 percent, a second round run-off could be held weeks after the election, heightening hostilities further.

On Monday, supporters of Lungu's Patriotic Front (PF) attacked an open-top campaign bus of Hichilema's United Party for National Development (UPND) in the Mtendere district of Lusaka.

UPND activists fled as rocks smashed into the vehicle, internet video footage showed, while several injuries were reported in other skirmishes in the district.

"Zambia is a peaceful nation," Lungu said in a statement. "I will not tolerate any person attempting to break the peace we have.

"What happened in Mtendere yesterday is unacceptable. I have called on the police to... enforce laws on any person who will be found guilty irrespective of their political affiliation."

Sporadic election-related clashes have erupted regularly in recent months, with Hichilema's loyalists furious at alleged attempts by authorities to quell opposition campaigning.

The UPND's vice president has been arrested and released twice, and the main independent newspaper has been closed in an apparent dispute over taxes.

"We refuse to let the PF intimidate us," Hichilema said Tuesday. "They attacked our double decker bus... hurling rocks at our people.

"They have stopped us from holding rallies, they are brutalising us."

The former British colony, ruled by Kenneth Kaunda from 1964 until 1991, has suffered a sharp downturn in growth and thousands of job losses in its crucial copper-mining sector.

GDP growth last year was 3.6 percent, the slowest since 1998, while inflation is over 20 percent.

"Both sides say that only a rigged election could stop them winning," Neo Simutanyo, director of the Centre for Policy Research, told AFP.

"The level of tension is higher than in the past, and the environment is not conducive to peaceful and fair elections.

"We are worried our democratic record is threatened."

The election is being held after the 2015 vote gave Lungu, 59, the right to complete the term of the late president Michael Sata, who died in office of an undisclosed illness.