By EditorZambia
In politics, stature is earned where performance, timing, and perception converge.
Four years into his presidency, Hakainde Hichilema has emerged as Zambia’s towering political figure—not by spectacle, but by accumulation: of reforms, alliances, credibility, and quiet confidence. 
As the 2026 general elections approach, the contrast could not be starker. While Predident Hichilema’s star continues to rise domestically, regionally, and internationally, the former ruling Patriotic Front (PF) appears trapped in a spiral of fragmentation, nostalgia, and self-inflicted decline.
The clearest signal of President Hichilema’s political ascendancy came not from Lusaka but from Choma. His first major public engagement of the election year was a calculated return to the ground that birthed the UPND’s political identity. It was not merely a rally; it was a statement of readiness.
Addressing thousands in a language and setting steeped in cultural meaning, the President projected confidence without triumphalism, urgency without panic. This was an incumbent who understands that continuity must be earned, not assumed.
At home, President Hichilema’s authority rests on delivery under pressure. He inherited a country battered by debt distress, institutional decay, and economic contraction. Zambia had defaulted on its obligations, investor confidence had evaporated, and public trust in governance was threadbare. The task before the new administration was not reinvention but rescue.
Four years later, the direction of travel is unmistakable. Debt restructuring—once thought improbable—has restored fiscal breathing space. The Kwacha has stabilised. Mining, the lifeblood of the economy, has been revived through reforms that rebuilt investor confidence and linked recovery to local participation. Economic growth, having collapsed under the previous regime, has returned to positive territory.
Beyond macro-economics, President Hichilema has anchored his domestic appeal in social investment. Free education, expanded meal allowances, and a dramatically enhanced Constituency Development Fund have altered the political economy at the grassroots.
With CDF allocations rising to K40 million per constituency, development has been decentralised in a way that makes tangible impact visible in clinics, schools, roads, and markets. This is not abstract policy; it is material change that voters can see and touch.
Critically, President Hichilema has also redefined the tone of governance. Where the past was characterised by cadreism, impunity, and political intimidation, the present emphasises the rule of law and institutional authority.
Ministers now openly question the culture of defiance toward law enforcement that once passed for political muscle. The message is consistent: power must submit to process. For a country fatigued by disorder masquerading as politics, this shift matters.
Regionally, President Hichilema has repositioned Zambia as a credible, stabilising voice. In Southern and Central Africa, where leadership is increasingly judged by economic competence rather than rhetoric, Zambia is once again taken seriously.
The President’s emphasis on peace, unity, and non-alignment has strengthened relations with neighbours while keeping Zambia above regional quarrels. He is not seeking to dominate the region; he is seeking to anchor it through reliability. That, in diplomacy, is influence.
Internationally, the transformation is even more pronounced. Zambia has re-entered global conversations not as a supplicant but as a strategic partner. The recent recognition by The Telegraph, a leading international publication as one of the world’s consequential leaders, is not ceremonial flattery; it reflects sustained engagement, disciplined reform, and strategic clarity.
Under President Hichilema, Zambia has balanced relations with competing global powers without ideological submission, leveraging its mineral wealth—especially copper—into geopolitical relevance in the green energy transition. This diplomacy has translated into renewed investor interest, infrastructure partnerships, and enhanced bargaining power.
Leadership, however, is always relative. It is here that the PF’s decline sharpens the President’s advantage. Once a formidable electoral machine, the former ruling party is now consumed by internal warfare. Factionalism, court battles, leadership disputes, and public infighting have hollowed out its credibility. The spectacle of rival camps tearing at each other in full view of the electorate has reinforced a damaging perception: a party unable to govern itself cannot credibly govern a nation.
The PF’s removal from major opposition alliances, the proliferation of splinter movements, and the absence of a unifying national message have left it stranded between past glory and present irrelevance. Even voices within its own ranks now lament the childishness of washing internal disputes in public. While the opposition argues with itself, the ruling party organises.
President Hichilema’s political strength is also structural. With Parliament expanded and constituencies increased, elections will be won not by noise but by numbers. The UPND’s quiet consolidation across provinces once considered hostile, coupled with endorsements from independents and regional leaders, points to a party thinking in arithmetic and not slogans.
Endorsements from across Southern Province are symbolic, but the real work is happening in regions where the UPND once struggled. This is the mark of a campaign that understands that national victory is built beyond home ground.
Perhaps most importantly, President Hichilema has reclaimed the narrative of leadership itself. His story—of persistence through defeat, resilience through imprisonment, and restraint in victory—has become a national metaphor for institutional renewal. He speaks not as a messiah but as a steward asking for time to finish the work of repair. When he says 2026 is a must-win, it is not desperation; it is a strategic argument for continuity.
The opposition’s challenge is not merely to criticise but to convince. At present, it does neither effectively. In politics, trust is comparative. On that scale, President Hichilema currently stands taller than all contenders.
As the storm of 2026 begins to move, the fundamentals favour the incumbent. A recovering economy, visible social investment, regional respect, international credibility, and an opposition in disarray form a powerful alignment. Elections are never foregone conclusions. But momentum matters.
Right now, Zambia’s political momentum unmistakably belongs to President Hakainde Hichilema, who is visibly headed for a resounding victory in 2026.
