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By Francis Chipalo
The above is probably one of the questions many Zambians including myself are asking as we approach next elections slated for 2026 which is fast – approaching.
2026 will indeed be an interesting year for Zambian politics.
Zambia has roughly more than 20 political parties including useless ones. Useless in the sense that these political parties and their leaders don’t have what it takes to stand on their own and they have never participated in an election whether ward, parliamentary or indeed presidential election.
From past experiences, what we have seen from emerging and existing political parties is that they either become ruling party “vuvuzelas” or join alliances who are desperately focused to remove the ruling party, although this is yet to happen because when we talk of alliances, I can’t recall any that has managed to achieve it’s goals. I stand to be corrected. That is debate for another day anyways.
My thoughts today is as to whether the current government, the UPND has competition ahead of 2026. Do they?
We have the former ruling party the Patriotic Front (PF) which is currently facing leadership wrangles with three camps claiming to be legitimate office bearers, with the Edgar Lungu camp that recently devorced itself from the United Kwacha Alliance (UKA) and quickly jumped into another marriage with the Tonse Alliance, placing ECL as it’s potential candidate in 2026.
Edgar Lungu is one big factor who is surrounded by some useless and toothless political parties, many of whom were his vuvuzelas during his reign as republican president.
Many have argued that an ECL comeback probably through the alliance could be possible in 2026. Well, I have my own reservations looking at where we are coming from.
However, it is important to note that ECL cannot be ignored and shouldn’t be ignored by the UPND because whether they like it or not, he still commands a huge following, has connections and is indeed President Hichilema’s competitor unless otherwise.
Apart from Edgar Lungu and his team of alliance members, which other political party can we comfortably say has potential of competing against UPND in 2026?
When you look at the caliber of the opposition that we currently have and the kind of politics, it must be stated that the opposition need to up the game and pull up their socks if they are to add value and give competition to the party in power.
Sadly, the opposition in my view apart from one or two are doing Zambians are disservice. Most of them appear to be bitter and personal. We are not interested in your personal battles but what we want to see from the opposition is offering alternatives and effective checks and balances to the government of day.
The challenge I personally have is that even political parties that are not in any alliance, they have no structures at all and emerging ones have a mount Kilimanjaro to climb if they’re to surprise us, don’t they?
Because of this vacuum in our politics, the UPND have seemingly become reluctant, grown big – headed and are overjoyed with confidence of a 2026 victory.
They should equally be made to know that it will not be a walk over for them as well because people have mixed feelings on the ground and might be looking for an alternative and should a chance present itself, the UPND are in a huge surprise come next elections otherwise I am foreseeing a lot of voter apathy unless otherwise.
My opinion!
*The author is a Journalist, Media Consultant and Activist on Mental Health matters*
