Zambia

Zambia’s Sata holds lead as vote count progresses

In Zambia, three times presidential hopeful Michael Sata (693,787) is reported to have a 7% vote lead (43%-36%) on President Rupiah Banda (542,362), with eight other candidates splitting the remaining votes. These results come from 85 of 150 constituencies reporting on Thursday, with final results expected to be announced by the end of the day. Small disturbances were reported to have broken out and put down quickly in the southern Copper Belt province, which is Sata’s stronghold. The disturbances seem to be caused by Sata’s supporters, who fear that vote-rigging will occur. Zambia’s independent Civil Society Elections Coalition reported that the election went relatively smoothly, but that “Vigilance must continue to help ensure the credibility of the collation and announcement of results.” Zambia’s economy is improving due to increasing world copper prices, and President Banda is taking credit for the stronger economy.

The outcome of this election has the possibility to play an important role to my family and me, because we operate a recycling center and one of the more expensive materials we buy is copper. Depending on the events in Zambia, the price of copper all over the world could shift. If Sata was to be elected, he could possibly attract new foreign investors in Zambia’s copper mines. If these investment’s help to discover new, large scale copper deposits, this could possibly cause the price of copper to stalemate or drop, which would mean the price being paid to recycling centers all over the world would probably do the same. If this were to occur, many recycling centers would possibly have to take a financial hit because they wouldn’t make enough profit to cover the expenses accrued while obtaining the copper. This could possibly result in smaller recycling centers going out of business, which with the current state of the global economy would be a hard hit to take. This could worsen the already struggling global economy and lead to major political and economic changes in many states.

Liberal

http://mg.co.za/article/2011-09-22-zambia-opposition-takes-lead-in-election-polls

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/22/zambia-election-tally-idUSL5E7KM2FB20110922

September 22, 2011 at 6:06 pm