Zambian President Edgar Lungu on Thursday justified imposing a state of emergency by alleging that opposition parties were behind a string of arson attacks intended "to create terror and panic".
Lungu denied he was establishing a dictatorship in Zambia — until recently a relatively stable country — and said his political rivals were trying to overturn last year's election results.
Several fires, including one that burnt down the main market in the capital Lusaka on Tuesday, have been at the centre of rising political tensions in Zambia.
The state of emergency — which increases police powers of detention and arrest — is "to curb lawlessness", Lungu told a press conference at his State House residence.
"The theory (by opposition parties) is that they put pressure so that we begin renegotiating the result of the last elections," he said.
"There is a deliberate ploy by the opposition... We won the elections and the winner takes it all. Their idea was to create terror and panic."
Last year's election was marked by clashes between rival supporters, with opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema remaining in detention on treason charges.
Hichilema was arrested in April after his convoy allegedly refused to give way to the presidential motorcade.
'Sad day for the country'
The president, who announced the state of emergency in a televised address late Wednesday, dismissed accusations of growing authoritarianism.
"Zambia is the most accomplished democracy in this region or the whole Africa. If this is dictatorship, then there is no democracy in Africa," he said.
"I know that people think I am targeting political players, I am not targeting any political player. I am only trying to bring sanity," he added.
The UPND has yet to react to the president's move, but the smaller MMD opposition party said Lungu should have allowed investigators to probe the cause of the market fire.