Zambia’s Hichilema wins second term as president

What the report says

Zambia’s electoral commission says President Hakainde Hichilema has won a second term, with official results showing him on about 60 percent of valid votes and his main challenger, Brian Mundubile, on about 38 percent. The outcome follows a contest reported by Al Jazeera as increasingly tense, with allegations of fraud emerging around the count.

The vote took place on August 13, 2026. Al Jazeera reported that Hichilema, the incumbent, had been favored to win because of the advantages of office, while Mundubile was seeking the presidency for the first time. The commission announced the result in the early hours of Tuesday, August 18.

According to the report, the election period was marked by unrest after a relatively calm campaign. Police arrested 11 people, including prominent opposition figures, during a nighttime raid that involved gunfire. The next day, vote counting was paused for hours because of reports of violence against polling staff and the theft of ballot papers.

Mundubile alleged that result forms from polling stations may have been altered and called for an urgent independent investigation. Hichilema’s camp rejected that claim. The result matters because Zambia is one of southern Africa’s more closely watched democracies, and the disputes surrounding the count could affect confidence in the process, though the published report did not indicate any final legal challenge outcome.