Rupiah Banda, the ruling party’s candidate, is due to be sworn in as Zambia’s new president on Sunday morning amid fears of unrest after the opposition refused to accept his wafer-thin victory at the polls.

Residents in the sprawling shanty towns of Lusaka, the capital, kept their shops shuttered and stalls furled on Saturday as tension mounted. Michael Sata, the firebrand opposition challenger known as ”King Cobra”, saw a 30-point lead eroded as results from his urban strongholds gave way to tallies from Mr Banda’s rural heartlands.