Hakainde Hichilema was first elected in 2021 after five previously failed runs for the presidency

🌐 Here's What Happened

Zambia's President Hakainde Hichilema has been re-elected for a second five-year term after securing a 60% share of the vote, the electoral commission has announced.

Hichilema's win was widely expected, with his closest challenger Brian Mundubile getting 38% of the votes cast. The remaining 12 candidates trailed far behind.

The result came after a contested process, with 55-year-old Mundubile earlier claiming victory and alleging, without providing evidence, that there had been voting irregularities.

📌 Key Details

His party, the NRPUP, told the BBC that Mundubile was in a "secure location under the protection of an international human rights body due to threats made against him".

"He will communicate directly with the Zambian people and the media as soon as circumstances allow," the party said on Tuesday.

Local media reported that Mundubile and his running mate Makebi Zulu had gone into self-imposed exile at a UN agency in the capital, Lusaka, fearing arrests.

It came after some leading opposition figures were arrested in a raid on Friday who the authorities accused of plotting an insurrection. Mundubile called the claim a fabrication.

In a statement after being declared the winner, Hichilema, 64, said: "We are truly humbled by the trust you have placed in our hands."

He said the election showed that Zambia was a place of peace, law and order and a "democratic nation that settles our differences at the ballot box, and nowhere else".

📰 Source: BBC Africa