The election is over. The Electoral Commission of Zambia has pronounced its winner, and President Hakainde Hichilema has been inaugurated for a second term.
Officially, Hichilema won 60.49 percent of the vote against Brian Mundubile’s 37.87 percent. It was, on paper, a decisive victory.
Yet Zambia has emerged from the election with something still hanging in the air.
The campaign is over, but the tension has not completely gone with it.And that raises a simple but uncomfortable question:If the result was so decisive, why does Zambia still feel politically unsettled?
HH Won — But That Is Not the End of the Story
We should start with what is clear.
ECZ declared Hakainde Hichilema the winner. He received 2,965,326 votes against Mundubile’s 1,856,217 — a difference of more than one million votes.
Concerns have since been raised about aspects of the electoral process. Those concerns deserve scrutiny, but they should not automatically be turned into a claim that Hichilema did not win.He did, according to the official result.
The more interesting question is what happened around that victory and what it means for Zambia now.
What Happened Before the Winner Was Announced Matters
Zambians voted on August 13.
But before ECZ had completed the count and declared a winner, the atmosphere had already changed.Counting was temporarily suspended amid reports of attacks on electoral officials and the theft of ballot materials.
Then came something far more serious.
During a security operation at a property associated with Mundubile, former cabinet minister and opposition politician Mutotwe Kafwaya was fatally shot.Authorities said security forces encountered armed resistance and recovered weapons. The opposition disputed that account.
Those competing versions should be tested by evidence, not political loyalties.
But the timing matters.
Zambia had voted, but it did not yet officially have a winner. Votes were still being counted.By the time ECZ eventually pronounced Hichilema the winner, the election was already carrying more baggage than the numbers alone could explain.
Then Came September 1
President Hichilema was inaugurated on September 1.
There were celebrations, visiting dignitaries and all the ceremony expected when a president begins a new term.
But there was another image of Zambia that day.
Hichilema’s principal challenger, Brian Mundubile, was in detention facing a treason charge. His running mate, Makebi Zulu, was also detained and facing treason proceedings.
These are extremely serious allegations.
If there is credible evidence that crimes were committed against the state, those responsible should face the law regardless of their political positions.
But charges are not convictions.
And because the accused include senior opposition figures following a tense election, the government carries an even greater responsibility to ensure that the process is transparent, lawful and visibly independent of politics.No opposition politician should be above the law. But neither should the law become a weapon of politics.
That distinction will matter enormously in the months ahead.
What About the Other 38 Percent?
Perhaps this is the question Zambia needs to think about most.
Brian Mundubile lost the presidential election.
But more than 1.85 million Zambians voted for him.
They did not lose Zambia.
They remain citizens with the same right to question government, organise politically and hope that their preferred candidate might win another election.
Likewise, the nearly three million people who voted for Hichilema should not have their democratic choice casually dismissed simply because concerns have been raised about the electoral process.
Both groups have a stake in the same country.
A 60 percent victory gives Hichilema a strong mandate to govern.
It should also give him the confidence to make political space for those who disagree with him.
HH Knows What Opposition Feels Like
There is something particularly important about Hichilema’s position.
He knows the other side of Zambian politics.
For years he was the opposition leader trying to reach State House. He lost elections. He was arrested. His supporters complained about restrictions on political activity and the use of state institutions against opponents.
Yet Zambia’s democratic system kept providing another election.
Eventually, he won.
That history gives Hichilema an unusual opportunity.
He can ensure that the political space that allowed an opposition leader called Hakainde Hichilema to eventually become President Hakainde Hichilema remains open for whoever comes next.
That may prove more important to his legacy than the size of his 2026 victory.
The Opposition Has Responsibilities Too
Reconciliation cannot be the President’s responsibility alone.
Almost 38 percent of the vote gives Zambia’s opposition a substantial constituency — and with it comes responsibility.
Where there is credible evidence of electoral wrongdoing, it should be challenged through lawful institutions.
But opposition politics must also be about more than disputing elections.
Those 1.85 million voters deserve alternative policies, serious scrutiny of government and leaders capable of presenting themselves as a credible government-in-waiting.
A healthy democracy needs a government that can tolerate opposition and an opposition that can challenge government without abandoning democratic institutions.
Who, Then, Really Lost?
If this were football, the answer would be easy.
Hichilema won. Mundubile lost.
But democracy is not football.
The people who voted for Mundubile did not lose their country.
And those who voted for Hichilema did not acquire ownership of it.
An election must produce a winner. It does not have to produce enemies.
That is perhaps Zambia’s challenge now.
ECZ has done its work. Hichilema has been inaugurated. The opposition remains a significant political force. The courts must deal fairly with those accused of crimes, and unanswered questions surrounding the election period — including the death of Mutotwe Kafwaya — deserve credible answers.
The election has ended.
What Zambia needs now is for the politics of the election to end with it.
President Hichilema already has his 60 percent.
The bigger opportunity is what he does with it.
Can he use that mandate to govern in a way that leaves the other 40 percent believing they still have a place in Zambia?
And can the opposition turn defeat into constructive democratic pressure rather than permanent confrontation?
Those questions will not be answered by ECZ.
They will be answered by what Zambia’s political leaders do next.
Because perhaps the real measure of this election will not be who won on August 13.
It will be whether, five years from now, Zambians on both sides still believe that elections are the best way to decide who governs them.
Afrikeye | Beyond the Headlines
