British High Commissioner congraturates Zambia on peaceful polls
皇冠体育app British High Commissioner James Thornton has commented on the result of the 2015 presidential by-election in Zambia. He said:
鈥淔irst let me congratulate the Electoral Commission of Zambia. Organising the election at short notice was a tough job. 皇冠体育appy had to recruit and train around 40,000 temporary staff to run the polling stations; those whom I observed seemed to be doing a very good job. 皇冠体育app weather significantly complicated the running of the election.
鈥溁使谔逵齛pp election process itself had numerous checks in it to prevent fraud. And it was very transparent. Party agents were able to observe all the voting and key elements of the tallying process.
鈥淚 wish to commend Justice Mambilina. She is a lady of unimpeachable integrity. We can have confidence in an election result that she has announced.
鈥淪econd, let me congratulate the winner of the election, Edgar Lungu. I look forward to attending his inauguration tomorrow. 皇冠体育app British Government will work with him and his government for the further development of this country.
鈥淭hird, let me offer my commiserations to the losers, and in particular to Hakainde Hichilema and his supporters. It is hard to come close yet not to win. I welcome the fact that HH has called for his supporters to remain calm and avoid violence.
鈥淟astly, this close election has made Zambia seem a little more divided than before. I hope that both the President-Elect and HH can work to create unity and reconciliation.鈥�