LUSAKA, Zambia
Zambians are voting in an election to choose a president and parliament, with more than eight million voters registered to cast their ballots.
Polls opened at 06:00 local time (04:00 GMT), though some experienced delays, and are due to close at 18:00.
The vote is seen as a test of Zambia's reputation as one of Africa's most stable democracies, amid concerns that political freedoms are being undermined. Unemployment and the rising cost of living remain major issues for voters.
President Hakainde Hichilema is seeking a second five-year term after steering Zambia through an economic rebound.
Fourteen candidates are on the ballot, but the contest is largely seen as a two-horse race between the incumbent and his main challenger Brian Mundubile.
Mundubile is a former minister in the Patriotic Front (PF) government that ruled from 2011 to 2021, with his alliance drawing support from backers of the late former President, Edgar Lungu.
Speaking after casting his ballot on Thursday, he said he stood for "peace and unity", as well as the empowerment of young people and women.
"This is indeed our second independence. I want every Zambian to celebrate this day," he added.
Lungu died more than a year ago and his body remains unburied in South Africa, amid a bitter dispute between Lungu's family and Hichilema, which has heightened political divisions in Zambia.
Hichilema, 64, won the 2021 election on his sixth attempt and is betting on job creation and an ambitious infrastructure drive to secure a second and final term.
The election is widely viewed as a test of his economic record, which has boasted debt restructuring, currency strengthening and lowered inflation.
Re "democracies"
ReplyDeleteNo real democracy ACTUALLY EXISTS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD (or has existed at any time in 'human civilization') because any so-called "democracy" of human civilization has always been a covert structure of the rule of a few over the many operating behind the pretense name and facade of a "democracy": https://www.rolf-hefti.com/covid-19-coronavirus.html
"There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. [...]. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies [...]. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable laws of business. The world is a business [...]." --- from the 1976 movie “Network”
"We can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." --- Louis Brandeis, US Supreme Court Justice
"I've come to realize that the biggest problem anywhere in the world is that people's perceptions of reality are compulsively filtered through the screening mesh of WHAT THEY WANT, AND DO NOT WANT, TO BE TRUE." --- Travis Walton, Author
Does anyone still not see how the deadly game on the foolish public is played ... or still does not WANT to see it?
Isn't it about time for anyone to wake up to the ULTIMATE DEPTH of the human rabbit hole --- rather than remain blissfully willfully ignorant in a narcissistic fantasy land and play victim like a little child?
"Growing up means realizing that none of the worst villains are in prison." --- Caitlin Johnstone, Independent Journalist (https://archive.ph/zDqoh)
"Ignorance is the root cause of all Evil. Since only Knowledge eradicates ignorance, it is our duty and moral obligation to educate ourselves, as well as the masses around us." --- Anonymous
"Elites are afraid of equality, they are afraid of real democracy, and they are afraid of justice." ---Scott Noble, filmmaker
Speaking of ignorance is evil, how can the masses get out of this whole mess (and create justice, freedom and peace for all)? First, EVERYONE needs to learn, and teach others, what TRUE morality is ---99% of people don't know what it is because (1) it's NOT taught in the official indoctrination system, better know as the "education system," and (2) it's NOT the same as religious morality: https://odysee.com/@woeih:e/Mark-Passio-Government-Is-Slavery:a
Because if you don't know what TRUE morality is you will not stop doing, unwittingly or wittingly, evil things...
"The solution is NOT to create something new (eg, new systems of organization, new technologies, etc). The solution is to STOP being complicit with evil. To STOP doing things that are not moral for a reward. To STOP being complicit with anything the control system tells us we must do." --- Mark Passio, Spiritual Teacher
"As financial access, employment, and administration become conditional on algorithmic systems, freedom does not disappear through overt coercion, but through participation that is scored, filtered, and managed." --- Mark Keenan, Dec 2025 [https://www.globalresearch.ca/ai-operating-system-digital-totalitarianism/5909796]