Zambia’s Opposition wins Parliamentary By-Elections

Zambia’s opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) and the former ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) have scooped three of the four parliamentary seats in the by-elections held Thursday.

According to official results announced by the Electoral Commission of Zambia Friday, the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) only managed to win one seat in Mkushi North, where PF candidate emerged victorious.

MMD’s Mtolo Phiri retained the Chipata Central seat in Eastern province after polling 8,186 votes, beating his closest rival Lameck Mangani of the MMD who received 5,913 votes.

The UPND scooped the Kafulafuta seat in the Copperbelt province, won by Brian Chitafu and also the Solwezi East seat in north-western, won by Villie Lombanya.

The Mkushi, Kafulafuta and Solwezi East parliamentary seats fell vacant following the resignations of members of parliament from the MMD to join the ruling PF, while the Chipata central seat by-election follows the nullification of the election results by the Supreme court.