The commission put Mr Hichilema, of the United Party for National Development, on 2,965,326 votes, or 60.49 per cent of the 4,902,050 valid votes cast. His principal challenger, Brian Mundubile, took 1,856,217 votes, or 37.87 per cent. Zambia requires an outright majority to avoid a run-off; the declared total cleared that threshold by 514,300 votes.
Mr Mundubile’s camp has not accepted the result. It says it has received information suggesting results forms from polling stations may have been altered, has called for an independent investigation, and has signalled that it is considering a formal petition under Zambian electoral law. The commission and government officials reject the allegation and say the count was properly conducted. None of the claims on either side has so far been independently established.
The week around the vote was not a quiet one. Counting was interrupted at points after reports of intimidation of polling staff and the theft of ballot papers, and eleven people, among them opposition figures, were arrested in a raid on 14 August at a property where Mr Mundubile was present. Government and opposition accounts of that raid differ, and it remains unresolved.
Zambia has twice in this century transferred power peacefully between parties, a record that gives the coming weeks their weight. What happens next is procedural rather than dramatic: either a petition is filed within the statutory window and the courts take it up, or the declaration stands.