HH doesn’t stand a chance in 2026 poll – Mwanza
By Tony Nkhoma
PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema cannot win genuinely in the 2026 general elections, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has said.
DPP president Antonio Mwanza said Hichilema was under serious stress and panic and knew that he could not win a free and fair election in 2026.
He said this when he featured on Hot FM Thursday.
Mwanza said with the worst hunger ever in the country, load shedding, lack of jobs, increased mealie and fuel prices which he promised to reduce but failed, Hichilema knew that Zambians were ready to vote him out next year.
“The President knows he can’t win 2026 in a genuine way. It’s not possible. With the levels of hunger and poverty in this country, there is no way that UPND can win a clean election,” he said
Mwanza said Hichilema himself knew the Zambian people would not vote for any of his party’s councillors, mayors and members of Parliament come 2026.
He said Hichilema understood that if Zambians were not going to vote for any of his officials, there was no way they could vote for him.
“Recently, he addressed his members that ‘if they are not voting for you, mayors, councillors and MPs, how are they going to vote for me?’ So the President knows he can’t win 2026 in a genuine way. It’s not possible. There is no way that UPND can win a clean election,” Mwanza said.
He said the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) was sabotaging registration of new voters because they knew that no new voters would vote for Hichilema and the UPND.
“They don’t want more voters to register because they know that the new young voters will not vote for UPND. I have calibrated my words deliberately because I know they are looking for sedition. They will not find it,” Mwanza said.
He said the structure of the ECZ was and would not inspire Zambians in the 2026 general elections because of their conduct as seen in the past elections since 2021.
ECZ had failed to enforce the Electoral Act, the Code of Conduct and the Electoral Commission of Zambia Act.
“They have allowed the ruling party (UPND) to use government facilities to campaign. They use government vehicles, they use government facilities such as schools to campaign. Violence has gone unabated,” Mwanza said.
He said every time there was political violence in the by-elections, the ECZ had just issued a statement to condemn the violence but not to punish the violent party.
“So we don’t have confidence that the Electoral Commission of Zambia, in the manner it’s conducting itself, can conduct a free, fair and credible election in the country going further,” Mwanza said.
He said the same manner the Commission could not be trusted to handle the 2026 general election was the same manner they were doing the mass voter registration exercise.
Mwanza said the Electoral Process Act was enough and all ECZ needed to do was to implement it, to ensure that there was a free and fair playing field, which was not happening.
