Zambia yenye idadi ya watu Milion 13,881,336 kwa takwimu za July 2011, sawa na mikoa minne ya Tanzania kwa idadi, imeweka historia nyingine baada ya Sata kuwa king'ang'anizi licha ya kutuhumu kuchakachuliwa katika uchaguzi wa muda ambao ulimweka madarakani Rupia Banda baada ya kifo cha Mwanawasa.
Tume ya uchaguzi ya Zambia kupitia kwa Jaji kiongozi Ernest Sakala ametangaza kuwa chama cha Patriotic Front kinachoongozwa na SATA kimelamba kura 1,150,045 ambazo ni sawa na asilimia 43 ya kura zilizohesabiwa.
Irebe Mambilima, mwenyekiti wa Tume ya uchaguzi ya Zambi9a amewaambia wandishi mjini Lusaka kuwa Sata ambaye amepoteza chaguzi tatu zilizopita ambapo alikuwa akiwania nafasi hiyo hiyo ya urais amemshinda Rupia Banda ambaye ambaye amepata asilimia 36 ya kura hizo.
While ballots from 16 constituencies remain unverified, Sata can’t lose the election as there are insufficient voters to give Banda a lead, Mambilima said today. The election was held Sept. 20, alongside a parliamentary ballot. Results from the parliamentary election haven’t yet been announced.
Sata, known to his supporters as “King Cobra” because of his aggressive style, attracted followers among the southern African nation’s youth with a promise to create jobs and spread wealth by extracting more benefits from a rapidly expanding copper industry. Banda, 74, vowed to continue policies that have lured investors and led to average economic growth of more than 6 percent a year since he succeeded Levy Mwanawasa three years ago after the former president died in office.
Mining Industry
“An upset by Sata will likely see a more resource nationalist policy for the mining sector, with potential tax hikes and greater government equity shares,” Sebastian Spio- Garbrah, managing director of New York-based DaMina Advisors LLP, a frontier-market risk adviser, wrote in a report to clients before the election results were known.“While Banda’s more genteel personality sits quite well with the growing upper-middle class, Sata’s more pugnacious campaign style appeals strongly to the disillusioned bulk of unemployed youth and lower middle class salaried government workers,” he said.
The elections were seen as “credible,” Maria Muniz de Urquiza, the head of a European Union team that observed voting and counting, told reporters in Lusaka Sept. 22.
Zambia may become the fifth-largest copper-mining country in the world by 2013, Sophie Chung, an analyst at Wood Mackenzie unit Brook Hunt in London, said in July. Production may more than double to 1.44 million metric tons by 2015, Brook Hunt said. Producers such as First Quantum Minerals Ltd. and Vale SA are planning more than $6 billion in investment.
Chile is the world’s biggest copper producer, with annual production of more than 5 million tons.
