Zambia is gearing up for an August election in which President Hakainde Hichilema is favoured to win a \u200bsecond term but may face a strong challenge from opposition leader Brian Mundubile.<\/p>\n
The vote is shaping up as \u200ca referendum on Hichilema’s economic record since he took office in 2021, inheriting a country reeling from a sovereign debt default.<\/p>\n
Africa’s second-largest copper producer has enjoyed an economic rebound supported by high copper prices after\u00a0restructuring its debt, but many people still feel squeezed by the cost of living, which \u200bthe opposition will aim to exploit.<\/p>\n
Annual inflation slowed to 6.5% in June, its lowest level in more than \u200beight years, underscoring Zambia’s economic recovery after its debt crisis, though many households still say they are \u2060struggling.<\/p>\n
“A lot of our families still need support beyond what we are delivering today, but I want you to know \u200bwe hear you,” Hichilema told supporters at his campaign launch in the capital Lusaka.<\/p>\n
CRITICS FLAG GROWING REPRESSION<\/strong><\/p>\n The 64-year-old businessman won by \u200ba landslide in 2021 when he unseated the late former president Edgar Lungu.<\/p>\n Mundubile, a 55-year-old lawyer and member of parliament before the election was called, has never run for president before and emerged as a late contender after a fractured opposition rallied behind him.<\/p>\n Although Zambia has a history of democratic transitions, the \u200bopposition has accused Hichilema of restricting its ability to campaign and suppressing political dissent, charges he denies.<\/p>\n Zambia introduced a new cyber crimes \u200blaw in 2025 which civil society groups say is vaguely worded and could make people afraid of speaking out online.<\/p>\n Hichilema also\u00a0signed constitutional changes\u00a0\u200cinto law \u2060in December that will expand parliament, a move critics say could favour his party.<\/p>\n “Any dissenting voice is regarded as an enemy of the state, so it’s been very difficult for the opposition to engage their members,” Mundubile told Reuters in an interview, adding that opposition meetings had been disrupted by police.<\/p>\n HICHILEMA LEANS ON ECONOMIC INDICATORS<\/strong><\/p>\n A survey by the Zambia Election Research Network late last \u200byear found 51% of respondents \u200bexpected a free and fair \u2060election and 55% planned to vote for Hichilema, although it was conducted before Mundubile launched his campaign.<\/p>\n “While the opposition started late to mobilise and organise, they should not be dismissed,” said Lee \u200bHabasonda, a political science lecturer at the University of Zambia.<\/p>\n Hichilema has the advantage of incumbency, \u200bincluding access to \u2060state resources and aircraft, while opponents travel by road across a country three times the size of the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n He is also campaigning against a backdrop of improved economic indicators. The International Monetary Fund projects Zambia’s economy to grow 4.3% this year from 3.8% last year, \u2060and foreign \u200binvestment\u00a0has picked up.<\/p>\n But Mundubile says the government’s economic achievements have done little \u200bto improve the lives of ordinary Zambians.<\/p>\n “How can you boast that you have built $6.5 billion in foreign reserves when your people are going hungry?” he said \u200bat a rally last month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Zambia is gearing up for an August election in which President Hakainde Hichilema is favoured to win a \u200bsecond term but may face a strong challenge from opposition leader Brian Mundubile. The vote is shaping up as \u200ca referendum on Hichilema’s economic record since he took office in 2021, inheriting a country reeling from a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21397,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":4,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2362,33,30],"tags":[5293,536,394],"class_list":["post-21396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-politics","category-southern-africa","tag-brian-mundubile","tag-hakainde-hichilema","tag-zambia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21396"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21398,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21396\/revisions\/21398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}