President Hakainde Hichilema seems heading in the right direction for outright win as observers cite violence and a tilted marketing campaign area.
Printed On 17 Aug 2026
Zambia’s incumbent President Hakainde Hichilema has taken an early lead within the nation’s normal election, placing him heading in the right direction for a doable outright first-round victory, because the vote is overshadowed by opposition claims that armed personnel raided his essential rival’s dwelling.
Voting started after polls closed on Thursday, and with greater than half the nation’s constituencies counted on Sunday, Hichilema had received practically 59 % of the vote, in accordance with the electoral fee.
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His nearest challenger, Brian Mundubile of the opposition Nationwide Reconciliation Occasion for Unity and Prosperity (NRPUP), trailed with a couple of third.
A candidate wants greater than 50 % to keep away from a run-off, and last outcomes are anticipated inside days.
Nonetheless, Hichilema’s lead is being weighed towards a marketing campaign worldwide screens have already referred to as unfair, and a rely that has been removed from clean.
Vote tallying was suspended for roughly six hours on Friday after reports of violence towards polling workers and allegations that marked ballots had been stolen, a pause the European Union’s observer mission described as “disproportionate”, since solely a small fraction of Zambia’s polling stations had been affected.
The electoral fee stated the menace to the rely had since been introduced beneath management.
A 57-year-old polling agent was killed close to the capital, Lusaka, on election day, and police arrested 9 suspects.
Allegations of armed raid
The NRPUP, contesting the election as a part of the opposition Tonse-Pamodzi alliance, has since made a far graver allegation. It stated in a press release on Sunday that armed personnel it believes to be members of the Zambian military entered Mundubile’s Lusaka dwelling on Friday night time, firing stay ammunition and wounding a member of parliament, earlier than forcibly eradicating a number of folks whose whereabouts the get together says stay unconfirmed.
Mundubile stated there was “no political language that may sanitise what occurred”, however he appealed to his supporters to not retaliate.
The NRPUP referred to as for “pressing regional and worldwide engagement” with the federal government to supply solutions concerning the alleged incident.
Zambian authorities haven’t responded to the declare on the time of writing.
Officers from Hichilema’s governing United Occasion for Nationwide Improvement (UPND) have beforehand accused the opposition of exaggerating irregularities to solid doubt on a legit outcome.
The EU’s monitoring mission stated its observers witnessed an individual being seized by armed personnel on the morning of August 10.
In preliminary findings launched on Saturday, the mission described the election as aggressive however skewed in direction of the incumbent, pointing to heavy bias in state media protection and a blurring of presidency enterprise with campaigning.
Zambia has transferred energy peacefully by means of elections since returning to multiparty politics in 1991, and Hichilema received a landslide victory in 2021.
His first time period has coincided with a return to financial progress, although greater than 70 % of the nation’s 22 million folks nonetheless stay on lower than $3 a day, in accordance with the World Financial institution, regardless of Zambia’s substantial reserves of copper and different minerals.
