Zambia election: Opposition Candidate leads, race expected to be close

The chairwoman of the Electoral Commission of Zambia has released early results of the presidential vote that show a challenger in the lead.

Irene Mambilima told reporters late Wednesday that with results from 33 of 150 constituencies in, Michael Sata was leading with 265,843 votes to President Rupiah Banda’s 192,966. None of the other eight candidates garnered more than 100,000 votes.

Mambilima says she will update the count again Thursday morning.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.