Police and demonstrators clashed early Tuesday in protests against the acting president, a white Zambian who fired the ruling party’s chief following the death last week of President Michael Sata.
The riots started Monday night in several places in the Zambian capital of Lusaka, including the University of Zambia and a government building designated as a place for Sata’s mourners to gather, according to witnesses.
Protesters had descended on the building, Belvedere Lodge, with stones, machetes and other weapons, and police fired tear gas into the venue to clear demonstrators from the area, the AP reported.
The protesters were angry over the decision by acting president, Guy Scott, to dismiss Edgar Lungu, the ruling party’s secretary general.
Lungu, who remains defense and justice minister, said his dismissal was illegal and accused Scott, who is of Scottish descent, of “insulting our culture.”
Under the constitution, Zambia must hold a presidential election within 90 days of a president’s death. Former Vice President Scott has said he is not interested in running for president and is in any case barred from the office because his parents were not Zambian by birth or descent.
Lungu, who was acting president just before Sata died Oct. 28 in a London hospital, has been considered a possible presidential candidate from the ruling Patriotic Front party. Some commentators speculated that his dismissal reflected political maneuvering among factions ahead of the presidential election.
