We've already seen President Edgar Lungu voting in Lusaka, and other candidates have also been casting their ballots.

There are nine people in all running for election.

Our reporter has tweeted pictures of the only female presidential hopeful:

Mr Lungu's main challenger, Hakainde Hichilema, has also just voted in Lusaka.

The action was played live on his Facebook page, external:

Image source, Hakainde Hichilema

After voting he gave an impromptu press conference, telling journalists that Zambians are expecting "free, fair, transparent and credible elections".

He also alleged that one of the election officials inside the polling station was a known member of the governing PF party. The electoral commission has made no comment about this.

To be declared the winner of the poll, a candidate must secure one vote more than 50% of the ballots cast.

If there is no outright winner after today the top two candidates will go forward into a second round.

Image source, Getty Images

The first African Olympians to compete in Rio today will be in the rowing in a few minutes.

But it is subject to the weather.

The event was meant to take place yesterday but was postponed to today because of high winds. 

It's the second time that the rowing has been postponed.

Lee-Ann Persse and Kate Christowitz start things off in the in the semi-finals of the women's pairs at 11:30 GMT.

But if you're a medal counter, then you should be looking out to see if South Africa's Lawrence Brittain and Shaun Keeling get hold of a medal in the men's pairs final at at 13:44 GMT.

Milton Nkosi
BBC Africa, Johannesburg

For the African National Congress (ANC) it's the morning after the night before as its National Executive Committee (NEC) meets for the first time since last week's bruising local government elections.

The ANC won more than 50% of the votes nationwide but suffered setbacks in some key urban areas.

The NEC will be looking at the best possible coalition partners as negotiations continue to form local councils.

The 104-year-old ANC lost control of major metropolitan areas including Johannesburg, Tshwane, which includes the capital, Pretoria,  Nelson Mandela Bay and Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg.

Soon after the votes were counted the party's deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa said it is time for "introspection."

Image source, AP

Zambia's electoral commission has given its first briefing, external on the progress of the elections so far.

The commission's director, Priscilla Isaac, has said that there has been a good turnout at the polling stations in the country and voting has been "calm and peaceful".

A BBC reporter has been tweeting pictures from the queues patient people at polling stations in Zambia's capital, Lusaka.

Dinner may not be available but Akwasi spotted one person selling some treats to keep the voters going:

Zambia's incumbent President Edgar Lungu has cast his vote at a polling station in the capital, Lusaka.

A BBC reporter was there to catch the moment after he left the polling station:

Akwasi had to battle with the crowds to get his picture:

A South Africa man has said outside court that he will never forgive the woman who took his baby in 1997.

He was speaking after arguments at the sentencing hearing wrapped up:  

A reporter for South Africa's SABC News says the sentence will be announced next week:

Zephany Nurse grew up thinking the woman who took her was her mother.

But she was eventually reunited with her biological parents after it was mentioned that a girl at school looked similar to her.

The girl turned out to be her biological sister.

Read more from March: Kidnapper of baby Zephany Nurse guilty

Zambia's electoral commission is holding its first briefing on the progress in the election so far.

They're reporting that 85% of all staff and materials were delivered by midnight last night.

Some polling stations have opened late, but they'll stay open later to compensate for the time lost.

You can watch it here, external.

Image source, ECZ

The BBC's Akwasi Sarpong in the capital, Lusaka, says there has been a high turnout so far at polling centres in Zambia's capital.

Long, calm, orderly queues have formed and election monitors have not reported any complaints, he says.

Here's another great photo sent in by a reader of voters queuing in Zambia:

Image source, Joseph Cheelo

The shadows give away that it couldn't have been much after sunrise.

Joseph Cheelo took the photo in Mazabuka, south-west of the capital, Lusaka.

Send your election pictures to us via whatsapp: +447341070844 

Matthew Davies
Editor, BBC Africa Business Report

South Africa has become the largest economy in Africa... again. 

For the past two years, Nigeria has claimed the top spot, but a re-calculation using current exchange rates has placed South Africa back on top. 

The new calculations are based on the International Monetary Fund's gross domestic product numbers for the two countries in 2015. 

Over the course of this year so far, South Africa's rand and Nigeria's naira have been moving in opposite directions against the dollar - for the rand a gain of around 16%, while the naira has lost a third of its value since effectively abandoning its peg to the US greenback. 

But there's not much in it - at $301bn South Africa beats Nigeria by just $5bn.

Both economies are at risk of falling into recession, as they both contracted in the first quarter of this year. 

Image source, AFP

Reader Chilala Brendon has sent us this photo of voters queuing in the small town of Monze in Southern Province, Zambia.

Image source, Chilala Brendon

Send your election pictures to us via whatsapp: +447341070844

Observers from African Union and European Union are in Zambia watching today's polls.

They include Nigeria's former president who is heading the AU team:

The EU team are also sharing pictures:

A civil society election monitoring group is tweeting its preliminary report on the state of today's elections in Zambia so far.

It's noted a few issues in some places:

Zambia has been held up as an example of democracy on the continent and has a long history of peaceful elections and incumbents giving up power.

In 1991, independence leader Kenneth Kaunda handed power to Frederick Chiluba of the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD). This was after he lost the first election since the return of multi-party elections.

In 2011, incumbent President Rupiah Banda lost to the Popular Front's Michael Sata.

Also, two presidents have died in office - Levy Mwanawasa in 2008 and Michael Sata in 2014 - and in both cases presidential by-elections were organised.

Image source, AFP

Zambia's electoral commission has said that women with painted nails or false nails can vote in today's election.

The commission published this post on Facebook yesterday: 

One commentor complained that she was still asked to take her nails off at her polling station.

Another urged the commission to make sure all the workers at polling stations know the change in rules. 

And a third got frustrated that people were also commenting about the candidates:

"The post is about painted nails, and fake nails. Hence comments should be in line with that," it said.

Image source, AFP

There were three more bronze medals late on Day 5 of the Rio Olympics for Africa.

Tunisia’s Ines Boubakri claimed bronze in the women’s individual foil event in the fencing while Egypt’s duo Sara Ahmed and Mohamed Ihab both won bronzes in weightlifting.

Boubakri lost her semi-final narrowly to the reigning Olympic champions Elisa Di Francisca before then overcoming Russia’s Aida Shanaeva in the bronze medal bout. 

It is a first-ever fencing medal for Tunisia and only the second ever for the continent after Egypts’ Alaaeldin Abouelkassem won silver in London four years ago

Egypt are the most successful African nation in weightlifting stretching back to 2 golds at the 1928 Games in Amsterdam – but Ahmed is the first woman to claim an Olympic weightlifting medal for Egypt as she came third in the women's 69kg. 

Ihab claimed his medal in the men’s 77kg category.

This activist appears disturbed by one voter's knowledge as they are about to vote in the Zambian elections:

Meanwhile other tweeters are reporting long queues in some areas:

One tweeter has posted pictures of how the Zambian front pages are reporting today's elections.

The Times and the Mail are both state-owned which may explain why incumbent President Edgar Lungu is featured more prominently:

There are two innovations in this presidential election in Zambia:

• A candidate needs one vote more than 50% of the ballots cast in order to win the election. If no-one gets an absolute majority then there will be a second round with the top two candidates.
• Each candidate has a running mate. This is to avoid a presidential by-election if the president dies in office - which has happened twice in the last 10 years.

Image source, AFP