PATRIOTIC Front cadres on Sunday clashed with police over the election results in which their leader Michael Sata slipped to third position in the Presidential race.

And in a related incidence, police have fought running battles with defiant Patriotic Front sympathisers in Lusaka's Garden Compound who ran riot blocking Katima Mulilo Road with several fires and stones.

Meanwhile Sata has accused the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) of suppressing election results.

The cadres blocked Great East Road and started throwing stones around midday. Some of the stone-throwing cadres were picked up and bundled into police anti riot vehicles.

During the ensuing confusion, some of the people fled into Arcades shopping mall away from the advancing police officers supervised by Lusaka Division Commanding Officer Wazakaza Nguni.

The cadres, waving placards, had earlier peacefully protested outside Mulungushi International Conference Centre (MICC) where the election results were being announced.

Some of the placards read: "Mr Sata is not Mazoka, be careful, we are ready to die. We are ready to fight Levy and Vernon."

News of Sata slipping to third position filtered through to the cadres around 10:30 hours, immediately causing angry protests.

Sata has scooped majority votes in Lusaka and the Copperbelt over his fellow presidential candidates.

Police had a tough time controlling the cadres who at one point blocked part of the Great East Road.

Some of the cadres came from the University of Zambia and were ferried in minibuses. A lady cadre took on a male police officer who was only armed with a shot button and wanted to slap him.

However, some police officers rescued their colleague and took him to the centre's entrance.

The cadres also sang anti-Mwanawasa songs.

Police spokesperson Bonny Kapeso said police were monitoring the situation. Some of the cadres shouted that they would continue with street protests because Sata's votes had been manipulated.

And in Garden Compound, PF sympathisers who were protesting the announced results that have placed party leader Michael Sata third after enjoying early leads in the presidential polls, took to the streets and threw stones at armed policemen who retaliated with tear-gas.

Anti-Riot police blocking the Great East Road during the protest by PF cadres outside Mulungushi Election Centre -Picture by Eddie Mwanaleza

Garden Compound was turned into a war-zone as the residents chanted anti- Mwanawasa slogans claiming they had been robbed in the polls and wanted change in national leadership. Even the heavy riot police presence did little to deter the rioters who would scamper after tear-gas was fired and later re-group to continue with protests while hurling stones at the police. The protests started around 14:00 hours and had not been quelled by 17:00 hours after the rioters re-grouped.

There were strict instructions from senior officers overseeing the operation led by Wazakaza Ng'uni not to fire any live shots except for tear-gas which clearly choked the residents who gasped for fresh air.

The police had to call in the fire brigade to help put out the fires placed across the road on several spots. Some residents talked to vowed to continue with the protests.

And during a briefing at PF secretariat at the same time the protests were taking place, Sata claimed that the ECZ was suppressing elections results to make President Mwanawasa win the election.

"They are jittery, they are panicking. We need verification because now we have received information from all over the country where for example in Kabushi there was 14,000 in my favour but they gave me only 7,000 and they gave the MP only 7,000," he claimed. "They are trying to suppress these results. All they want is to make Mwanawasa to say that he has won."

Sata said for as long as the election results had not yet been announced by the Chief Justice, they (PF) still had the right to have the results verified.

"We have a right to verify station by station in all constituencies," he said Sata said he would not be intimidated, saying he had heard reports that he would be arrested for allegedly alarming the nation.

"They are trying to use all sorts of intimidation, psychological warfare," Sata said. "I have a constitutional right to defend my vote. I have a constitutional right to defend what they are trying to deprive me."

Sata said Mwanawasa would not have the conscience to rule the country with a stolen vote.

"Will he have the conscience to run the country when he has stolen a vote?" he asked. Sata said he had written to the ECZ to verify the elections results and complain about the selective release of results.

And Sata said it would be a sad day in the history of Zambia if elections were rigged. Reacting to President Mwanawasa's lead in the presidential polls at a press briefing at his house on Saturday evening, Sata said Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) chairperson Justice Ireen Mambilima should accept to verify all the presidential results that have been counted so far or face the consequences of running a fraudulent election.

"We have established more than 400,000 votes have been suffocated and this is mostly on presidential, nobody can tell us what has happened. We as PF are demanding immediate verification before the election results are announced," Sata demanded. "If Justice Mambilima does not accept to verify the results she will bear the consequences of running a fraudulent election."

Sata said he did not see any reason as to why the verification cannot be done in that a candidate has got a right to demand for the verification of results.

"A candidate has a right to demand for the verification of results before they are handed over to the Chief Justice," he stated.

Sata claimed that some presidential results in Lusaka, Copperbelt, Central, Luapula Northern and Eastern provinces have been concealed.

"The point is that the results are not spoiled, they have just disappeared," Sata charged. He said the discrepancies in the presidential results was evident by the fiasco of ECZ to announce the results of areas like Munali and Lukashya where it was well known that the PF had scooped the presidential polls.

"In Munali just next door - they have hidden 20,000 votes. If these results were for Mwanawasa they would have been announced by now," he said. "Lupando Mwape has lost and up to now they have not announced the results."

Sata accused MMD campaign committee chairman Vernon Mwaanga of being behind the concealing of the results.

"Our chief rigger Vernon Mwaanga is saying Lusaka and Copperbelt is not Zambia, we know him he is the master minder of all this, we want to maintain peace," he said.

Sata said immediately he is confirmed the winner he would bring transparency in the electoral process in Zambia not the way things were being handled.

He said he wondered why MMD would want to dubiously emerge victorious instead of winning by defending what they had achieved so far.

"If I am the winner, I will bring transparency. If I am the incumbent I should defend what I have achieved," Sata said.

He accused ECZ and MMD of trying to take Zambia back in the days when the President was standing with hyenas and frogs.

"This is evident if you take the aggregate and compare you will see the discrepancies," he said.

Sata said PF was asking for not more than just transparent elections, adding that his party if it were to lose wanted to lose genuinely.

"The results on the ground and the results we have been told have not been the same so we are submitting an official letter requesting immediate verification of results before they are declared," he said.

Sata said if ECZ wanted transparent, free and fair elections they should accept the verification, adding that his party could not accept more than 400,000 votes to be lost. "If these results are spoiled we should have seen the spoiled papers raging from 2000 to 20,000," he said.

According to results announced by Judge Mambilima, President Mwanawasa had 733,772 representing 38.71 per cent of the votes cast, with Hakainde Hichilema at 579,494 representing 30.57 per cent and Sata with 537,844 representing 28.37 per cent.

Brig Gen Godfrey Miyanda had 30,992 and APC's Ken Ngondo had 13,398. This was out of 94 constituencies and represented 1,895,500 votes.

In Bwanamukubwa, Sata polled 764, President Mwanawasa had 4,631, and Hichilema had 1,404, Miyanda 185 and Ngondo 48.

In Chadiza, Hichilema had 6049, President Mwanawasa had 5,305, and Sata had 985, Miyanda 219 and Ngondo 187.

In Chasefu in Lundazi, Hichilema had 13,261, President Mwanawasa had 6,280, Sata 2,059, Miyanda 678 and Ngondo 342.

In Chawama, President Mwanawasa had 8089, Hichilema had 3,050, Sata had 70, Miyanda had 69 and Ngondo had 50.

In Chembe, President Mwanawasa had 4831, Sata had 2339, and Hichilema had 491, Miyanda 76 and Ngondo 29.

In Chifubu, Sata 11761, President Mwanawasa had 7,974, Hichilema 2,027, Miyanda 236, Ngondo 51.

In Chikankata Hichilema 14412, President Mwanawasa 2465, Sata 649, Miyanda 382 and Ngondo 89.

In Chisamba President Mwanawasa had 12,492, Hichilema had 7999, Sata 1800, Miyanda 226 and Ngondo 90.

In Chitambo, President Mwanawasa, 7435, Sata 957, Hichilema 309, Miyanda 97 and Ngondo 49.

In Ndundumwezi, Hichilema had 14696, President Mwanawasa 669, Miyanda 46, Sata 136 and Ngondo 101.

Kafulafuta, President Mwanawasa 8660, Hichilema 335, Sata 314, Miyanda 80 and Ngondo 32.

Kapiri Mposhi, President Mwanawasa 28870, Hichilema 8192, Sata 6255, Miyanda 429 and Ngondo 164.

In Katombora, Hichilema had 16 158, President Mwanawasa 8953, Miyanda 444, Sata 302 and Ngondo 120.

Katuba, President Mwanawasa had 10,509, Hichilema 4,398, Sata 1,525, Miyanda 153, and Ngondo 64.

In Keembe, President Mwanawasa had 19,432, Hichilema 8338, Sata 909, Miyanda 285 and Ngondo 137.

In Luena, President Mwanawasa had 9886, Hichilema 410, Sata 403, Ngondo 206, Miyanda 78.

In Lufwanyama, President Mwanawasa had 13,489, Sata had 1,492, Hichilema 1032, Miyanda 232 and Ngondo 141.

In Lumezi, President Mwanawasa had 9,433, Hichilema had 7891, Sata had 2898, Miyanda had 386 and Ngondo had 227.

In Magoye, Hichilema had 11 815, President Mwanawasa 2 236, Miyanda 209, Sata 139 and Ngondo zero.

Masaiti, President Mwanawsasa 13 090, Sata 1 206, Hichilema 597, Ngondo 205 and Miyanda 93.

In Mukaika, President Mwanawasa 8444, Hichilema 5881, Sata 2143, Ngondo 580 and Miyanda 533.

In Muchinga President Mwanawasa had 7444, Hichilema 1086, Sata 450, Miyanda 113 and Ngondo 41.

In Nakonde, President Mwanawasa had 14,389, Sata 2,746, Hichilema 1 013, Miyanda 228 and Ngondo 118.

Ndola Central, Sata had 14 962 President Mwanawasa 4 731, Hichilema 2 824. In Vumbwi, Hichilema had 3 978, President Mwanawasa 3512, Sata 413, Miyanda 397 and Ngondo 391.