Zambia Elects a New President (HE Hakainde Hichilema)
Zambia’s electoral commission has confirmed that last week’s presidential election was won by the opposition candidate Hakainde Hichilema.
Mr Hichilema defeated his main rival, the outgoing President Edgar Lungu, by almost a million votes.
This was Mr Hichilema’s sixth attempt at winning the presidency. His supporters have been celebrating on the streets of the capital, Lusaka.
Earlier, on Saturday last week Mr Lungu alleged that the elections were not free and fair.
He said election officials from his Patriotic Front party were chased from polling stations, leaving their votes unprotected.
In response, Mr Hichilema’s United Party for National Development said the statement was the “desperate final act of an outgoing administration”.
In its final tally, the electoral commission said Mr Hichilema had won 2,810,777 votes to Mr Lungu’s 1,814,201 in Thursday’s election. There were seven million registered voters.
The landslide win means Mr Hichilema will not have to fight a run-off contest.
“I therefore declare that the said Hichilema to be president of Zambia,” commission chairman Esau Chulu announced at the results centre in Lusaka.
Mr Lungu’s seven-year rule was criticised for alleged human rights abuses, corruption, a failing economy and massive unemployment. Mr Hichilema, 59, tapped into widespread dissatisfaction among voters.
He now faces the daunting challenge of turning around the country’s economic fortunes.
Celebrations which started on Sunday continued until sunrise as Zambia was painted red by supporters of Hakainde Hichilema.
There’s no doubt that that political winds of change were ushered in by young people who are often accused of being reluctant to vote. They turned up in high numbers and generally rejected President Edgar Lungu.
“We want jobs, young people want jobs,” chanted throngs of people as they filled the streets of the capital shortly after Mr Hichilema was declared the seventh president of this copper-rich nation.
There’s no doubt that Mr Hichilema will inherit the rot and will attempt to clean up corruption left by his predecessor.
That’s if President Lungu respects the will of the people and hands over power. He claimed the election wasn’t free and fair after he lost votes in many of his traditional strongholds.
He said elections were characterised by violence, which is in direct contrast with regional and international observers, whose preliminary findings said the elections were relatively peaceful despite pockets of violence, political interference and an uneven playing field which favoured the governing Patriotic Front.
A concession speech hasn’t been made by the incumbent even after losing by close to one million votes. Mr Lungu is expected to approach the courts to challenge the result but the margin of his defeat might make it hard for judges to overturn the result.
His Excellency President Elect, Mr Hakainde Hichilema (born 4 June 1962) is a Zambian businessman and President-Elect of Zambia. After having contested five times in 2006, 2008, 2011, 2015 and 2016 and just won the 2021 election.
Early life and career
Hichilema was born in a village in Monze District in present-day Zambia. He received a scholarship to study at the University of Zambia and graduated in 1986 with a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Business Administration. He thereafter pursued an MBA in Finance and Business Strategy at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.[1]
He served as the chief executive officer of both Coopers and Lybrand Zambia (1994–1998) and Grant Thornton Zambia (1998–2006).[2]
Political career
He is a member of the opposition United Party for National Development, a liberal political party. Following the death of Anderson Mazoka in 2006, he was elected as the party’s new President. He also served as the leader of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA), an alliance of three opposition political parties.
In the 2006 election, Hichilema was the candidate of the UDA and ran against incumbent president Levy Mwanawasa of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy and Patriotic Front candidate Michael Sata. He received the endorsement of former President Kenneth Kaunda. The election was held on 28 September 2006 and Hichilema took third place with about 25% of the vote.
Hichilema ran as the UPND candidate in the 2008 election, which was called following the death of President Levy Mwanawasa.[3] He came 3rd with 19.7% of the vote. In June 2009, Hichilema’s party, the UPND, formed a pact with Michael Sata‘s Patriotic Front (PF) to contest the 2011 election together. However, indecision on the pact candidate, deep mistrust and accusations of tribalism from both sides resulted in the collapse of the pact in March 2011.[4]
He was one of the two main candidates in the January 2015 presidential election, which he lost by a narrow margin of 27,757 votes (1.66%) against the ruling party’s candidate, Edgar Lungu. Hichilema denounced the election as a sham and urged his supporters to remain calm.[5][6] He again faced Lungu as the main opposition candidate in the August 2016 presidential election, and was again narrowly defeated.[7]
In April 2017, he was arrested on suspicion of treason and charged with attempting to overthrow the government.[8] He was in prison for 4 months before being given a Nolle prosequi.[9][10]
Arrest & treason charge
Hichilema was arrested on 11 April 2017. On the night of the 11th of April 2017 the Zambian Police broke and entered Hakainde Hichilema’s compound to arrest the country’s main opposition leader, ordered by President Edgar Lungu’s government[11][12][13] and charged with treason after he was accused of endangering the president’s life after his motorcade allegedly refused to give way to the one transporting President Lungu,[14] a case which many viewed as a minor traffic offense[15][16] and not one that could amount to treason. Hichilema strongly denied the charge, which carries a maximum sentence of death penalty.[17]
Police misconduct during arrest
The police used excessive force[18] to enter Hichilema’s residence damaging his home and property, beat up all his workers, stole colossal sums of money, jewelry, as well as underwear, shoes, speakers, blankets, carpets and food from the kitchen and defecated on Mr. Hichilema’s bed.[19][20] Teargas canisters were thrown inside Hichilema’s home[21] gassing Hichilema, his asthmatic wife, and his children, who collapsed several times due to inhaling the gas.[22]
Condemnation of arrest
Hichilema’s arrest was widely condemned. The United States,[23] the European Union[24] and the European Parliament[25] denounced the arrest. The Africa Liberal Network condemned the arrest as an attempt by President Lungu to silence dissent and opposition.[26] The Catholic bishops strongly condemned the arrest and said Zambia had become a dictatorship under President Edgar Lungu.[27] Julius Malema, the leader of South Africa’s EFF party, accused Zambia’s president Edgar Lungu of apartheid style repression for detaining Hichilema on treason charges[12] and called president Lungu a “coward”.[28] Mmusi Maimane, the leader of South Africa’s DA party, who was denied entry into Zambia to visit Hichilema in Jail[29] (stopped from exiting the plane at Lusaka‘s Kenneth Kaunda International Airport) strongly denounced the trumped up charges against Hichilema.[30]
Time in jail
Hichilema said in an interview on HARDtalk that during his time in prison he was held in solitary confinement for eight days without food, water, light or visitation, was tortured by having his private parts pepper sprayed, and accused president Lungu of having tried to kill him.[31]
His wife, Mutinta, was turned away by prison officials when she took food for him.
Hichilema’s arrest was the subject of the episode of Al Jazeera‘s The Stream TV program titled Is Zambia’s Democracy in Danger[32] which aired on 30 May 2017.
High-profile jail visitations
Zambia’s first president Kenneth Kaunda was turned away by prison officials when he visited Hichilema in Prison.[33]
Mmusi Maimane, leader of the Democratic Alliance (South Africa) was also turned away by Zambia Police when he came to Zambia to attend Hichilema’s court appearance, he was not allowed to disembark from the plane, had his phone confiscated and was roughed up.[29] This prompted South Africa’s Foreign Ministry to summon Zambia’s Ambassador to South Africa Emmanuel Mwamba to explain the actions of the Zambian regime.
Former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo visited Hichilema in prison.[34]
Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Baroness Patricia Scotland visited Hichilema in prison twice.[35]
State of emergency
While Hichilema was in Jail, President Lungu imposed a state of emergency,[36] a move critics saw as an effort to tighten his grip on power.[37]
Protests
Protests broke out in Zambia, South Africa[38] and the United Kingdom[39] demanding the release of Hichilema and condemning Edgar Lungu’s authoritarian rule and deteriorating human rights in Zambia.
Release from prison
Celebrations took place throughout Zambia when Hichilema was released from prison on 16 August 2017 and scores of people lined up the roads of Lusaka to have a glimpse of Hichilema as his motorcade left prison.[40]
Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, congratulated the Zambian authorities for dropping the treason charges against Hichilema and releasing him from prison.[41]
Thanksgiving prayers were held to celebrate Hichilema’s release from jail at the Cathedral of Holy Cross in Lusaka on 29 August 2017 and Hichilema was present at the event which drew large crowds and was aired live on television. The event was originally scheduled to take place the previous week on 24 August but was blocked by heavily armed state police who sealed off the venue.
Hichilema became more popular after his release and was awarded the Africa Freedom Award in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was invited to speak at Catham House in London and was also invited to speak in South Africa by Democratic Alliance Members of Parliament.[42]
A book about Hichilema’s time in Prison called Hakainde Hichilema’s Prison Diary[43] was released on 29 September 2017 by Journalist Fredrick Misebezi.[44] Hichilema endorsed the book and urged the public to read it.[45]
