View source for Zambian general election, 2011

{{Infobox election
|election_name     = Zambian general election, 2011
|country           = Zambia
|type              = presidential
|previous_election = Zambian presidential election, 2008
|previous_year     = 2008
|next_election     = Zambian presidential election, 2015
|next_year         = 2015
|election_date     = 20 September 2011
|image1            = [[File:Michael Sata (cropped).jpg|120x120px]]
|nominee1          = [[Michael Sata]]
|popular_vote1     = 1,170,966
|percentage1       = 41.98%
|party1            = Patriotic Front (Zambia)
|image2            = [[File:Rupiah Banda.jpg|120x120px]]
|nominee2          = [[Rupiah Banda]]
|popular_vote2     = 987,866	
|percentage2       = 35.42%
|party2            = Movement for Multi-Party Democracy
|image3            = [[File:Hakainde Hichilema 2014.jpg|120x120px]]
|nominee3          = {{nowrap|[[Hakainde Hichilema]]}}
|popular_vote3     = 506,763
|percentage3       = 18.17%
|party3            = United Party for National Development
|map_image         = 
|map_size          =  
|map_caption       = 
|title             = President
|posttitle         = President-elect
|before_election   = [[Rupiah Banda]]
|before_party      = Movement for Multi-Party Democracy
|after_election    = [[Michael Sata]]
|after_party       = Patriotic Front (Zambia)
}}
'''General elections''' were held in [[Zambia]] on 20 September 2011,<ref>[http://www.times.co.zm/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=632:its-september-20&catid=46:other-headlines It’s September 20! ] The Times </ref> electing a [[President of Zambia|President]] and members of the [[National Assembly]]. [[Michael Sata]] of the [[Patriotic Front]] (PF) won the presidential elections, defeating incumbent [[Rupiah Banda]] of the [[Movement for Multi-Party Democracy]] (MMD), and was sworn into office on 23 September. The PF emerged as the largest party in the National Assembly, winning 60 of the 148 seats decided on election day.

==Campaign==
Incumbent President [[Rupiah Banda]], of the ruling [[Movement for Multi-Party Democracy]] party, ran for his first full term as President after replacing [[Levy Mwanawasa]], who died in August 2008.<ref>[http://www.lusakatimes.com/2010/11/23/luwingu-backs-rupiahs-candidature-2011/ Zambia: Luwingu backs Rupiah’s candidature in 2011] ''Lusaka Times'', 23 November 2010</ref>

[[Michael Sata]] was the candidate of the [[Patriotic Front]] and [[Hakainde Hichilema]] was the candidate of the [[United Party for National Development]].<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14952240 China's stake in Zambia's election] BBC News </ref>

With Chinese companies investing US$2&nbsp;billion by the end of 2010 in the Zambian economy, the status of Chinese business ties with Zambia, Africa's largest copper producer, grew significantly. Early in his campaign, Sata accused the Chinese mining firms of having slave-like labour conditions and ignoring safety standards and local cultural practices.<ref name="aljaz"/> He has been nicknamed "King Cobra" because of his harsh rhetoric, but he later toned down his rhetoric against the mostly Chinese foreign mining firms.<ref name="reuters"/>

==Conduct==
Two days before the results were officially announced, the High Court banned three independent media outlets from publishing speculation on the result after ''The Post'' published a headline reading "Sata Heads for Victory." The same day, Banda's office also said that such reports were "rumours" as no final result had been compiled.  The delay in announcing the results was the cause of riots in [[Ndola]] and [[Kitwe]], where youths fought with riot police while also burning vehicles and markets. Additionally, hackers attacked the Election Commission's website that night and posted false results suggesting Sata won by a landslide.<ref name="aljaz"/><ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15019198 Zambia poll: Riots in Kitwe and Ndola over slow results] BBC News</ref>

[[European Union]] electoral observers said that the election was "generally well administered," but that there was not equitable access to resources, resulting in the lack of a "level playing field" in the campaign. They said that state-owned media had failed to meet "even their minimal obligations as public service media."<ref name="voa">[http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2011/09/22/opposition-leader-sata-declared-winner-of-zambia-election/ Opposition Leader Sata Declared Winner of Zambia Election] VOA News  </ref>

The Zambian-based [[Foundation for Democratic Process]] criticised the holding of the election without electoral reform. It blamed the history of electoral violence and the previous failure of the losing parties to accept losing on the lack of reform.<ref>[http://www.lusakatimes.com/2010/11/19/holding-elections-current-constitution-mockery-fodep/ Zambia: Holding elections under current constitution is a mockery – FODEP] ''Lusaka Times'', 19 November 2010</ref> While many called for the establishment of a 50% + 1 vote system for electing the president, the government said a new system would not be used for the election.<ref>[http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=15873 "50% + 1 won’t be used in 2011" – Kunda] Post, Zambia, 19 November 2010</ref>

==Results==
On 23 September, Chief Justice Ernest Sakala announced Sata the winner of the election with 1,150,045 votes, or 43%, with 95.3% of votes counted. Banda received 961,796 votes, or 36.1%, and other minor parties trailed in the poll.<ref name="aljaz"/><ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/09/22/zambias-incumbent-president-concedes-defeat-following-election/ |agency. Zambia's Incumbent President Concedes Defeat Following Election] FoxNews.com 22 September 2011</ref> Sata was sworn into office later that day

===President===
{| class=wikitable style=text-align:right
!Candidate
!Party
!Votes
!%
|-
|align=left|[[Michael Sata]]||align=left|[[Patriotic Front]]||1,170,966||41.98
|-
|align=left|[[Rupiah Banda]]||align=left|[[Movement for Multi-Party Democracy]]||987,866||35.42
|-
|align=left|[[Hakainde Hichilema]]||align=left|[[United Party for National Development]]||506,763||18.17
|-
|align=left|[[Charles Milupi]]||align=left|[[Alliance for Democracy and Development]]||26,270||0.94
|-
|align=left|[[Elias Chipimo Jr]]||align=left|[[National Restoration Party, 2011|National Restoration Party]]||10,672||0.38
|-
|align=left|[[Tilyenji Kaunda]]||align=left|[[United National Independence Party]]||9,950||0.36
|-
|align=left|Edith Nawakwi||align=left|[[Forum for Democracy and Development]]||6,833||0.24
|-
|align=left|[[N’gandu Peter Magande]]||align=left|National Movement for Progress||6,344||0.23
|-
|align=left|[[Godfrey Miyanda]]||align=left|[[Heritage Party]]||4,730||0.17
|-
|align=left|Frederick Mutesa||align=left|[[Zambians for Empowerment and Development]]||2,268||0.08
|-
|align=left colspan=2|Invalid/blank votes||39,602||–
|-
|align=left colspan=2|'''Total'''||'''2,772,264'''||'''100'''
|-
|align=left colspan=2|Registered voters/turnout||5,167,154||53.65
|-
|colspan=4 align=left|Source: [http://www.elections.org.zm/media/28092011_public_notice_-_2011_presidential_election_results.pdf ECZ]
|}

===National Assembly===
Voting did not take place in two constituencies ([[Magoye]] and [[Nakonde]]) on polling day due to deaths of candidates,<ref>''Zambia General Elections, 20 September 2011: Report of the Commonwealth'', Commonwealth Observer Group</ref> and the elected member for [[Chongwe (Zambia Parliament constituency)|Chongwe]] (Japhen Mwakalombe of the MMD) resigned before taking his seat. By-elections were held for all three seats on 24 November 2011, with the PF winning two (Chongwe and Nakonde) and the UPND one (Magoye).

{|class=wikitable style=text-align:right
!Party
!Votes
!%
!Seats
!+/–
|-
|align=left|[[Patriotic Front]]||1,037,108||38.42||60||+17
|-
|align=left|[[Movement for Multi-Party Democracy]]||902,619||33.44||55||−17
|-
|align=left|[[United Party for National Development]]||464,527||17.21||28||–
|-
|align=left|[[Alliance for Democracy and Development]]||33,057||1.22||1||New
|-
|align=left|[[Forum for Democracy and Development]]||20,243||0.75||1||–
|-
|align=left|[[United National Independence Party]]||18,446||0.68||0||–
|-
|align=left|National Movement for Progress||11,828||0.44||0||New
|-
|align=left|[[National Restoration Party]]||4,688||0.17||0||New
|-
|align=left|[[Zambians for Empowerment and Development]]||3,059||0.11||0||New
|-
|align=left|New Generation Party||657||0.02||0||0
|-
|align=left|National Revolution Party||505||0.02||0||New
|-
|align=left|[[Heritage Party]]||485||0.02||0||0
|-
|align=left|Unified Party for Democracy and Development||308||0.01||0||New
|-
|align=left|[[National Party]]||193||0.01||0||0
|-
|align=left|Zambia Direct Democracy Movement||177||0.01||0||0
|-
|align=left|Zambian Conservative Party||168||0.01||0||New
|-
|align=left|All People's Congress Party||139||0.01||0||0
|-
|align=left|Citizens' Democratic Party||137||0.01||0||0
|-
|align=left|[[United Liberal Party]]||131||0.00||0||–3
|-
|align=left|Federal Democratic Party||27||0.00||0||0
|-
|align=left|[[Independent politician|Independents]]||201,089||7.45
||3||0
|-
|align=left|Presidential appointees||–||–||8||0
|-
|align=left|Appointed Speaker||–||–||1||0
|-
|align=left|Vacant||–||–||2||–
|-
|align=left|Invalid/blank votes||36,132||–||–||–
|-
|align=left|'''Total'''||'''2,735,723'''||'''100'''||'''159'''||'''0'''
|-
|align=left|Registered voters/turnout||5,101,312||53.63||–||–
|-
|align=left colspan=5|Source: [http://www.elections.org.zm/media/28092011_2011_national_assembly_elections_results.pdf ECZ] (votes), [http://www.elections.org.zm/media/summary-allocationofnationalassemblyseats.pdf ECZ] (seats)
|}

==Reactions==
Sata received a congratulatory telephone call from his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama.<ref name="Reuters">[http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/23/us-zambia-election-idUSTRE78M4HY20110923] Zambia's "King Cobra" Sata sworn in as president</ref> While in the 2006 election China had threatened to cut diplomatic relations with Zambia if Sata was elected, due to his criticisms of Chinese mining interests in the country,<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15034694 Michael Sata: Zambia's 'King Cobra' finally strikes] BBC News </ref> China issued a statement "welcoming" the result.<ref name="Reuters"/>

==Analysis==
[[Psephology|Psephologist]]s suggested that the youth vote helped [[anti-incumbency]] in a continent that rarely results in an anti-incumbent vote. They also drew parallels with the 2011 ousting of the presidents of [[2011 Tunisian revolution|Tunisia]] and [[2011 Egyptian revolution|Egypt]].<ref name="aljaz">[http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/09/2011922234557755338.html Opposition leader wins Zambia election – Africa] Al Jazeera English </ref> As a result of Sata's rhetoric, there were also concerns about the future investment climate in the country.<ref name="reuters">[http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/22/us-zambia-election-idUSTRE78L7BB20110922 |title=King Cobra Sata wins Zambia presidential race] Reuters </ref> Other readings said that after Sata toned down his rhetoric he did not differ much from Banda, but benefited from a crowded ballot of candidates.<ref>[http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/Challenger-Michael-Sata-wins-Zambia-presidential-elections/articleshow/10085946.cms Challenger Michael Sata wins Zambia presidential elections] The Times of India</ref> Psephologists also indicated that Sata did well in the urban areas, while Banda was expected to do well in the rural areas.<ref name="voa"/>

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
*[http://www.elections.org.zm/2011_elections.php Election Commission of Zambia] for the 2011 election

{{Zambian elections}}

[[Category:Elections in Zambia]]
[[Category:Presidential elections in Zambia]]