LUSAKA (AFP) ― Zambia’s defense minister Edgar Lungu, of the ruling Patriotic Front, has narrowly won the country’s presidential race, the electoral commission announced Saturday after an election marred by delays.

Lungu won 48.33 percent of the vote, beating his rival Hakainde Hichilema of the United Party for National Development, who garnered 46.67 percent.

Lungu’s victory was greeted with cheers and dancing after the chairwoman of the Electoral Commission of Zambia, Ireen Mambilima, announced the results of this week’s vote, which Hichilema has denounced as a sham.

Some of the celebrations in the streets of capital Lusaka got out of hand, with police using teargas to disperse excited PF supporters who tried to force their way into the conference center where the announcement was made.

Neither Lungu nor Hichilema attended the results announcement.

Patriotic Front secretary general Davies Chama applauded Lungu’s victory, saying he had worked hard to win support.

Lungu will be sworn-in on Sunday, becoming Zambia’s sixth president since independence from Britain.

The 58-year-old fought a bruising internal power struggle to become the ruling Patriotic Front’s candidate after Sata’s death in October.

The tall, slim former lawyer, who sports a trim beard, describes himself as an “ordinary Zambian of humble beginnings.”

He wins the remaining year-and-a-half of Sata’s five-year term in the copper-rich southern African nation, with fresh elections due next year.

The vote to replace his predecessor Michael Sata, who died in office last year, spilled into three days, from Tuesday to Thursday, amid allegations of irregularities by the opposition camp.

Hichilema, a self-made businessman on his fourth run at the presidency, said the election had not been fair from the start, and decried violence directed at his supporters ahead of the vote.

“We have experienced widespread violence against our supporters and party members throughout the campaign, as well as deep irregularities in the counting process,” he said on Saturday before the election results were announced.

Hichilema has alleged discrepancies in the counting process, and demanded the commission verify the results in the presence of officials from his party and the ruling PF.

Nevertheless he urged his backers to remain calm “for the sake of Zambia,” and vowed his party would emerge stronger ahead of general elections in 2016.

Scores of Hichilema’s backers stormed the electoral commission’s offices on Thursday claiming vote-rigging.

The election was also marred by poor voter turnout amid heavy downpours of rain.

When Lungu is sworn in acting president Guy Scott will officially step down.

Scott, Africa’s first white leader in 20 years, could not stand for the presidency himself as his parents were not born in Zambia.