Zambia: What’s Behind Hichilema’s Constitutional Reforms?

The police in Zambia stopped the nationwide protests planned by a coalition of opposition parties and civil society organizations on Wednesday, March 19. The demonstrations were called to oppose President Hakainde Hichilema’s decision to amend the constitution without public consultation.

Timed in the lead-up to the 2026 general election, the constitutional reforms have caused significant concern that Hichilema is using them to tilt the race in his favor.

His “lieutenants” have made several remarks about increasing the number of seats in his strongholds and getting rid of the requirement for more than 50% vote share to be re-elected as the president, said Cosmas Musumali, Secretary General of the Socialist Party (SP), the third largest in the parliament.

A sinister agenda behind the rhetoric of inclusive governance

Yet, Hichilema himself has been posturing as a reformer, seeking to make governance more inclusive of women, youth, and people with disabilities by amending the constitution.

After choosing to make his opening address at last November’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence (GBV) a platform to press for constitutional reforms, Hichilema reiterated his stance earlier this month: “We need constitutional amendments and we are willing to do that… so that more women could be appointed or elected.”

But constituencies can be reserved for women, youth, or other marginalized groups, without making any amendments to the constitution, Musumali emphasized.

Articles 68 and 69 of the constitution already allow the president to appoint up to eight members to the parliament in addition to the 156 elected MPs “to enhance the representation of special interests, skills or gender in the National Assembly.”

Musumali added that “the president also has the power to appoint the board of directors of many government and government-funded institutions. Article 259 mandates that both genders should be reflected equally in the public office positions filled by nominations or appointments, in a manner that ensures “equitable representation of the youth and persons with disabilities.”

However, Hichilema has only used his powers of appointment to “fill these positions with cronies – most of them men,” said Musumali, arguing that this shows his insincerity. The rhetoric of inclusive government is only cover for a more sinister plot to manipulate the 2026 election, about which several hints are being dropped by Hichilema’s minions in the ruling United Party for National Development (UPND).

Reducing the vote-share threshold to be elected president

Calling the 50%+1 vote requirement to be the president “cumbersome”, they are saying a simple majority should suffice. This is a return to the pre-2016 system, where one could be elected president with a vote share of just 20%, winning only in one of ten provinces, Musumali explained.

After much debate and consistent pressure from civil society groups, a widespread consultative process concluded in 2016 that the presidency had to be made more representative and legitimate by requiring the President to have at least more than 50% of the votes.

If none of the candidates bagged enough, the top two candidates must contest in a run-off election for a clear winner to emerge with over half the vote share. In such a scenario, Musumali added, the candidate winning the second-highest number of votes in the first round can defeat the highest vote-winner in the run-off if other candidates support him with their vote base.

In such a system, he said, Hichilema’s chances of winning the 2026 election are slim, as his popularity has been taking a nose dive amid a worsening cost of living crisis under his government that has accelerated neoliberal reforms, unleashing an unbridled privatization drive.

Food prices have “sky-rocketed” fueling much of the inflation nearing 17%. The “poorest of the poor” Zambians, who “spend about 60 to 70% of their incomes on food” have been “hit real hard. Poverty is increasing” while his government, giving increasing concessions and handouts to multinational corporations, is imposing belt-tightening austerity on the masses, Musumali said.

Pointing to the government’s denial of permission for all political rallies and protests, he added that it shows Hichilema is acutely aware of the mass anger he faces.

Increasing seats in strongholds under the cover of delimitation

Instead of addressing the roots of this anger before the next election, Hichilema has chosen to manipulate it – even to the extent of misusing the critical delimitation exercise.

Currently, the country is delimited into 156 constituencies, each with a representative in the parliament. Several factors including demography, the geographical ease of access, etc are factored in. Delimiting again to reflect the changes in these factors has been due.

It is a process that requires two to three years, holding wide-spread consultations with people from across the regions. If done properly, it cannot be rushed through by next August, Musumali argues. It also requires sizable funds. “But the 2025 budget has not allotted any funds for this exercise,” he protested.

“They delayed it all along, and now they suddenly want to do it without funding. It is clearly an afterthought” in light of the upcoming election, he alleged. UPND politicians are “talking about delimiting some of their stronghold constituencies into four new constituencies,” in what is a “criminal act” to seek more seats than they could have won otherwise in the upcoming election.

SP demands that the government go to the constitutional court to explain that there isn’t enough time and funds to undertake this complex exercise and seek approval to postpone it until after the 2026 election.

Pointing out that the government had ignored repeated calls to initiate the process on time earlier in Hichilema’s term, a consortium of 14 Civil Society Organizations have condemned his attempt to rush the process in the last year of his term before election, calling it politically motivated.

“As we approach 2026, UPND shall become more and more politically desperate and restless. But we should not allow them to alter our Constitution selfishly and unpatriotically… [to enable] the sitting President to remain in power in 2026,” said former president Edgar Lungu, head of the second largest party in the parliament, the Patriotic Front (PF).

In a joint statement on March 19, the three Church Mother Bodies also condemned the “rushed and hasty constitutional amendment process. Our repeated calls for constitutional amendments have largely gone unanswered,” it said, asking “Why is the government drafting documents in isolation [at the last moment] without public consultation?”

Street actions are the only hope

The closest thing to a consultation was the spectacle Hichilema put on during his address to the National Youth Day commemoration on March 12. “We need more women and youth in parliament – even those that live with disabilities. To do that, we need to amend the constitution,” he said, asking rhetorically, “So do you agree that we amend the constitution?”

The youth wing of his party, allegedly the only group allowed to attend the program, cheered in approval, whereupon, he declared: “The owners of the country, the youth, they’ve agreed. They’ve told us. Thank you very much.”

Refuting the need for broader consultations, the government maintains that it can be debated in the parliament. Although the UPND and its coalition partners do not have the two-thirds majority to pass the amendment, Cosmas is concerned that enough MPs from the fragment opposition can be “bullied and bribed” into voting in favor of the amendments.

“So we are placing our hope in street actions by the masses of our people” to stop Hichilema’s “criminal” manipulation of the 2026 election under the cover of constitutional reforms. “We are getting ready to challenge him with mass protests and agitations,” he told Peoples Dispatch.

Courtesy: Peoples Dispatch