The Editor Zambia
There is a disturbing and increasingly unmistakable question confronting Zambia after the 2026 general election: the opposition prepared to go beyond electoral politics and use militia networks, violence, and intimidation to remove a democratically- elected President Hakainde Hichilema?
This is no longer a question that can simply be brushed aside as partisan rhetoric but a disturbing sequence of statements, seditious activities, security operations, and violent incidents surrounding the election all that demands serious public scrutiny. 
Zambia cannot afford to ignore warning signs merely because they involve politically connected individuals.
At the centre of this controversy is the emerging conduct of politicians associated with the Chambeshi and Luangwa political grouping who have come together under the Tonse Pamodzi Alliance umbrella.
This clique is unwilling to accept that national leadership of President Hakainde Hichilema and is determined to turn tables using any means, including violence.
This clique has failed to understand that President Hakainde Hichilema did not become President because he is Tonga but became President because Zambians voted for him.
His second-term mandate cannot be invalidated by politicians who happen to dislike his ethnicity.
The timeline surrounding the election, however, raises deeply troubling questions.
Here is a chronicle of disturbing events:
Notorious former Petuke Central member of parliament
Emmanuel J J Banda was reported to have appeared in a Facebook video praying for President Hakainde Hichilema to be killed by snipers.
Binwell Mpundu subsequently spoke about missing Russian-trained bodyguards and separately declared that he was prepared to “kill or be killed” during the election.
Such statements become particularly alarming when placed alongside subsequent claims and counterclaims involving alleged armed groups.
Brian Mundubile then declared himself the winner of the presidential election on the basis of his party’s Parallel Voter Tabulation before the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) had completed announcing the official results.
Sections of his supporters subsequently celebrated what they regarded as victory, with reports of disorder and vandalism in Lusaka.
The ECZ later suspended the announcement of results after violence targeting electoral personnel before resuming the process under enhanced security.
These developments alone should have been enough to make every responsible Zambian pause.
Evidence has now surfaced from Tonse Pamodzi Alliance members themselves that there were cadres who were trained militarily. Who recruited or financed them? Who gave them instructions? Were they connected to politicians, and if so, how far up the political hierarchy did that connection extend?
But there is an even larger danger. If political actors believe that they can first reject an election, then mobilise supporters, invoke ethnic grievances and finally resort to armed pressure, Zambia will cease to be a constitutional democracy and become a hostage of political violence.
The message must, therefore, be unequivocal: the ballot box must remain more powerful than the bullet. Those who genuinely believe the 2026 election was flawed have constitutional remedies available to them. They can challenge results, present evidence, and seek judicial redress. What they cannot legitimately do is manufacture instability in the hope that chaos will achieve what the electorate denied them.
There is nothing democratic about attempting to remove an elected president because he belongs to the wrong ethnic group. There is nothing patriotic about militia mobilisation. There is nothing courageous about threatening death.
Zambia has survived political transitions without descending into civil conflict precisely because its people have repeatedly rejected the politics of the gun.
The country must, therefore, confront the militia question before it becomes a national catastrophe. Every political leader, regardless of party or region, must understand that Zambia’s presidency is won through the votes of citizens, not through armed men operating in the shadows.
