Zambia to swear in Hichilema after disputed vote

Zambia President Hakainde Hichilema will be sworn in for a second term next week, the cabinet said Tuesday, despite uncertainty whether a challenge to his election victory was validly filed.

Hichilema won re-election with around 60 percent of the vote, but opposition leader Brian Mundubile, who came second, alleged fraud and vowed to challenge the result in court.

The southern Africa country closed its courts on Monday, citing "security reasons", on the final day of a seven-day window for filing a petition against the presidential result.

The cabinet said the judiciary had received no petition and that Hichilema would be sworn in on Tuesday, September 1.

The judiciary, however, said the chief justice had received a petition from a member of the public on his private email address challenging the result.

It called the submission "highly irregular" but said the chief justice had referred it to the Constitutional Court for consideration.

It was not immediately clear whether the court would accept the petition or whether it could affect Hichilema's planned inauguration.

Legal and rights groups on Monday criticised the decision to close the courts and deploy security forces at the premises in the capital, Lusaka.

The August 13 election was marred by allegations of intimidation, pro-government bias and restrictions on the opposition, with tensions rising sharply after polls closed.

Mundubile went into hiding after security forces arrested 11 members of his camp the day after the vote over alleged treason-related offences.

A former cabinet minister, Mutotwe Kafwaya, was shot and killed during the security force raid.

International observers said a nationwide six-hour halt in vote counting damaged confidence in the process.

The Christian Churches Monitoring Group, which conducted its own tally, said Hichilema won an outright majority but that his official total may have been inflated, an allegation the government has denied.