Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
edgar lungulatest news & developments
In a bid to secure another term, Zambia’s Hakainde Hichilema is controlling the judiciary, tampering with legislation and limiting activities by the opposition ahead of next year’s elections. Photo: Supplied

Zambia’s 2026 election: How Hichilema is tilting the playing field against opponents

As President Hakainde Hichilema lays his groundwork for Zambia’s 2026 election, a disputed outcome appears almost inevitable

Former president Edgar Lungu’s body is still in South Africa because of a row between Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema and the Lunga family over where he should be buried. Photo: File

Zambia: Missed opportunities in the feud over Edgar Lungu’s burial

If President Hakainde Hichilema cannot manage a funeral, how can he manage a country?

Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema faces elections next year. Photo: Supplied

Zambia: Understanding Hakainde Hichilema’s transition from reformist to  despot

Faced with public discontent, fear of losing power has driven Zambia’s president to change the constitution and enact repressive laws ahead of next year’s election

In a bid to secure another term, Zambia’s Hakainde Hichilema is controlling the judiciary, tampering with legislation and limiting activities by the opposition ahead of next year’s elections. Photo: Supplied

Hakainde Hichilema’s facade of fighting corruption in Zambia is slipping

The president needs to take a strong line on graft if he is genuine about ending the scandals in which he is allegedly complicit

Zambia President Hakainde Hichilema

Zambia’s debt crisis is not easy to solve

In early 2021, the country agreed to be a guinea pig for a new approach to tackle sovereign debt

Zambia President Hakainde Hichilema

Why Zambia’s president is popular abroad but a disappointment at home

A year into Hakainde Hichilema’s first term as president reveals he is more interested in colluding with the West and dividing the country along ethnic lines

A man wears a traditional Kankurang mask along the beach in the popular tourist area of Senegambia in Banjul on December 6, 2021. (Photo: John Wessels/AFP)

The Continent: Africa A-Z of 2021

The highlights of 2021 in Africa

President Hakainde Hichilema is quickly squandering the respect the country once held on the international stage. (Photo by Darren Stewart/Gallo Images via Getty Images)

Zambian president’s first 100 days

Hakainde Hichilema came to power on a wave of optimism. Has he delivered?

President Hakainde Hichilema’s government faces serious economic challenges despite the fact that Zambia has one of the richest resources of raw materials in the world. Photo: Salim Dawood/AFP

Hakainde Hichilema: From prison to president of Zambia

Hakainde Hichilema’s remarkable comeback

Red is led: Hichilema supporters celebrate in Lusaka.  (Photo by MARCO LONGARI/AFP via Getty Images)

Zambia 2021: The voice of the people triumphs once more

Lungu’s defeat in the Zambian elections will be a constant reminder to the new government that the Zambian people have the power to vote for change

President elect Hakainde Hichilema gives a press briefing at his residence in Lusaka, on August 16, 2021. – Zambian business tycoon and veteran opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema scored a landslide victory on August 16, 2021 in bitterly-contested presidential elections. (Photo by Patrick Meinhardt / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK MEINHARDT/AFP via Getty Images)

Zambia’s new president vows ‘better’ democracy after landslide win

Speaking shortly after his predecessor Edgar Lungu conceded defeat, the business tycoon and veteran opposition leader said his camp had been victims of a “brutal regime that is…

Business tycoon and opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema was on Monday declared winner of the hotly contested presidential election in debt-burdened Zambia. (Photo by SALIM DAWOOD/AFP via Getty Images)

Zambia’s opposition leader Hichilema wins presidential vote at sixth bid

Business tycoon and opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema was on Monday declared winner of the hotly contested presidential election in debt-burdened Zambia

Hakainde Hichilema (C), leader of the Zambia opposition party United Party for National Development. (EPA-EFE/NIC BOTHMA)

Zambians go to elections amid turmoil. What’s at stake

What is worrisome is that even if Zambians desire political change, research indicates that fear of facing electoral violence lowers support for democracy

Millions of Zambians regularly exercise their democratic right at the ballot box (GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP via Getty Images)

Five things to watch in the Zambian elections

Zambia will hold presidential elections in three weeks’ time amidst an ongoing economic crisis and rising political tensions. These are the five most important things to look out…

Standing by their man: Supporters of Zambia’s governing Patriotic Front and former president Edgar Lungu at his closing presidential campaign rally of the last election cycle in August 2016. (Gianluigi Guercia/AFP)

Two surveys, two wildly different predictions for Zambia’s election

But both surveys ultimately suggest that Zambia’s governing party is under considerable pressure

The youth are a national asset because they can help alter the course of Zambia’s future. (Photo by Salim Dawood / AFP) (Photo by SALIM DAWOOD/AFP via Getty Images)

The 2021 elections are important for young Zambians

The youth are a national asset because they can help alter the course of Zambia’s future

Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia’s “founding father” and first president, has died in a military hospital in Lusaka where he was being treated for pneumonia. (Photo by Vladimir Akimov / Sputnik / Sputnik via AFP)

Zambia’s Kenneth Kaunda was the last of Africa’s ‘philosopher kings’

The liberation legend died on Thursday at a military hospital in Lusaka, aged 97

Zambia may burn after the August elections. Here’s how to prevent this

The public’s lack of trust in formal institutions means the election is a potential tinderbox. The people of Zambia need to challenge the status quo

Zambia’s polls were closely contested despite widespread irregularities.

Stop Zambia’s digital squeeze

A proposed cyber law will muzzle Zambians and restrict the opposition ahead of the elections

Former Zambian president Edgar Lungu

This is how Lungu is planning to rig Zambia’s 2021 general election

The president is trying to amend the Constitution and create a new voters’ roll in a bid to stay in power