Hichilema Wins Second Zambia Term After Tense Election

President Hakainde Hichilema secured roughly 60% of the vote, but the election also brought counting disruptions, violence and opposition arrests that remain under scrutiny.

LUSAKA, ZAMBIA — Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema has won a second term, extending his mandate after an election that confirmed his national lead but also exposed deeper political tension over living costs, opposition treatment and the conduct of the count.

 The Electoral Commission of Zambia declared Hichilema the winner Tuesday. Published results gave him 2,965,326 votes, while his main challenger, Brian Mundubile, received 1,856,217. Reuters reported the shares as roughly 60% and 38% of valid votes.

The result gives Hichilema another five-year term after he first took office in 2021. His United Party for National Development entered the campaign arguing that the government had restored macroeconomic stability after years of debt distress and had put the country back on a path toward investment and higher copper production.

Mundubile and the opposition, however, capitalized on frustration over high living costs, electricity shortages and the slow transmission of economic recovery into household finances.

Election result follows disruptions and arrests

The vote was not defined only by the final margin. Counting was suspended at one point after violence at polling locations and reports of stolen ballot boxes, according to Associated Press reporting.

Tensions rose further when law-enforcement officers raided a location where opposition figures were gathered. Eleven people were detained. Authorities alleged an armed-insurrection plot; Mundubile and opposition representatives rejected that account and described the action as political repression.

Those are competing allegations, not settled facts. Any later criminal proceedings or independent investigation will be important to assessing what happened during the raid.

Regional and international observers had urged parties to respect the formal electoral process. Zambia has built a reputation for competitive multiparty elections and peaceful transfers of power, making the handling of disputes especially important to its democratic standing.

Copper and debt remain at the center of Hichilema’s agenda

The election also has economic significance beyond Zambia. The country is one of Africa’s largest copper producers, and its mineral reserves have attracted major Chinese investment as well as increased US and European interest in critical-mineral supply chains.

Hichilema’s first term was dominated by efforts to restructure external debt and restore investor confidence. Those steps improved parts of the macroeconomic picture, but they did not eliminate the household pressures that strengthened Mundubile’s showing.

The president has promised to expand copper production and accelerate national development. Delivering visible improvements in electricity, employment and cost-of-living conditions will now be central to his second-term political position.

The immediate constitutional result is clear: Hichilema has been declared re-elected. The unresolved questions concern the legal and political aftermath of election-day disruptions, the treatment of opposition figures and whether the government can convert economic stabilization into broader improvements before the next national vote, with scrutiny continuing in the months ahead.

By María Quesada | Politics | CRN Times
Published: 18 August 2026, 2:45 p.m.