Sawt Falasteen - Zambia's Hichilema takes early lead in reelection bid

The 64-year-old had won 1,544,140 votes -- or 58.87 percent -- in 135 of the country's 226 constituencies, said the commission.

His closest challenger, Brian Mundubile, had 1,030,662 votes in a field of 14 hopefuls.

A candidate needs more than 50 percent of valid votes to win outright; otherwise, the top contenders face a run-off.

While Thursday's vote was largely peaceful, the run-up was marred by opposition claims of intimidation, arrests, abductions and violence.

In one incident, a 57-year-old polling agent in a township outside the capital Lusaka died on voting day after being attacked by a group of men, police said. Nine suspects were arrested.

Observer missions, including the European Union, called on parties to tone down inflammatory statements ahead of final results, due on Monday.

The electoral commission suspended vote counting for about six hours on Friday following reports of violence against polling staff and the alleged theft of marked ballot papers.

Hours earlier, Mundubile, 55, had claimed a first-round win in the presidential election and said his party had also secured a parliamentary majority.

The suspension of the count had caused "uncertainty and anxiety", said the observer mission of the regional SADC grouping, led by Samuel Tembenu, a former Malawian justice minister.

Reinhold Lopatka, head of the European Parliament's election observer delegation, described the suspension as "disproportionate".

The electoral commission has not said if the stolen ballots were retrieved.

- 'Uneven playing field' -

The copper-rich southern African country has a long record of transferring power through the ballot box, with every change of president since the return to multiparty politics in 1991 achieved through elections.

Hichilema himself won office in 2021 on his sixth attempt, defeating arch-rival Edgar Lungu in a landslide.

But opposition parties and civil society groups have warned of a tightening political environment during his reign, citing curbs on campaigning and other restrictions.

The European Union on Saturday said the restrictions had "contributed to an uneven playing field" in the vote.

The election is seen as a test of Hichilema's first five years in office, during which the economy returned to growth, although critics say this has yet to translate into better living standards for ordinary households.

More than 70 percent of its population of 22 million lives on less than $3 a day, according to the World Bank, despite the country also having significant potential in cobalt, nickel and manganese.

T.Khatib--SF-PST