President urges calm after Zambian riots. 02/10/2006. ABC News Online

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa has appealed for calm after opposition Patriotic Front supporters rioted in protest at preliminary results showing their leader, Michael Sata, was heading for defeat.

"It will not do to start questioning the results of the elections," Mr Mwanawasa said in an address on state television and radio.

"I am appealing to the church, trade unions, civil society and peace-loving Zambians to condemn all acts of lawlessness being perpetrated by some parties."

His comments came after Patriotic Front supporters went on the rampage in slum areas of Lusaka, torching vehicles and pelting police with stones.

The violence broke out in the poverty-stricken Garden Compound suburb and then spread to neighbouring Mandevu, the venue for Mr Sata's last rally in the capital before Thursday's elections for a president and parliament.

Witnesses said police reinforcements who tried to contain the initial arson attacks on vehicles had come under attack. Security forces then sealed off the area in a bid to prevent the violence from snowballing.

The protesters' fury was sparked by results showing Mr Sata, who had built up a strong lead in the initial results, had slumped to third place after declarations from 80 per cent of voting districts.

Mr Mwanawasa, head of the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD), had a third of a million more votes than Mr Sata after results from 120 of 150 constituencies.

Signs that tensions were building came earlier as riot squad officers fired tear gas and arrested scores of PF supporters protesting outside the main counting centre in Lusaka.

Shopkeepers put up their shutters, members of the public stayed indoors and motorists were harangued into honking their horns in favour of Mr Sata, who has a massive following among the urban poor.

Patriotic Front protesters also took to the streets in the northern town of Kasama, although there were no reports of violence.

Sata claims victory

Mr Sata reiterated his belief he had won and slammed the elections commission for holding back on results from what he claimed were his strongholds.

Although the tally does include results from some constituencies in urban areas, Mr Sata said the commission was sitting on the outcome from others.

"I have won these elections," Mr Sata told reporters.

"We demand that results from our stronghold areas be released forthwith. What criteria are they using in releasing the results?"

Elections commission chief Ireen Mambilima announced Mr Mwanawasa had secured 952,650 votes of the 2.6 million counted, or 42 per cent, and that Sata's tally stood at 615,429 votes, 27 per cent.

The results also showed Hakainde Hichilema, head of the three-party United Democratic Alliance, running second with 641,109 votes, 28 per cent.

With the presidency slipping out of his hands, Mr Sata has already voiced suspicions the vote may have been fixed.

Ms Mambilima said she had received complaints from the opposition, including an allegation from the Popular Front that 400,000 ballot papers had disappeared.

"I have received letters of complaint from the PF and the UDA and we are looking at the issues raised," she said.

Mr Hichilema expressed unhappiness about the vote-count, calling it "a mirror image" of the 2001 election when there were also allegations of tampering.

"We needed verification before a winner is declared," he told Zambian television.

"The fact that we are quiet and are supporters are calm does not mean that we are happy with the outcome."

National police chief Efraim Mateyo warned the Opposition against stirring up trouble, saying the security forces would deal firmly with incitement.

Mr Mwanawasa, hoping to secure a second and final term, has asked voters to give him more time to tackle poverty in a country where two-thirds of people live on less than a dollar a day.

The MMD has been in power since 1991 when it ousted Kenneth Kaunda, leader since independence in 1964.

- AFP