Latest / Spoken News / President Hakainde Hichilema wins the Zambian general election for a second consecutive term.

Transcript

President Hakainde Hichilema wins the Zambian general election for a second consecutive term. · Spoken News

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to spoken news, where Wikipedia excerpts are read verbatim
• 0:04
  by a computer. President Jakeinde Hicchealima wins the Zambian general
• 0:08
  election for a second consecutive term. General elections were held
• 0:13
  in Zambia on the thirteenth of August twenty twenty six
• 0:15
  to elect a president, members of the National Assembly, councilors
• 0:19
  and council chairs. In the presidential election, incumbent President Hakaymde
• 0:24
  Hicchealima of the United Party for National Development was seeking
• 0:27
  a second term. His running mate was incumbent Vice President
• 0:31
  Mutaleen Alamango. There were thirteen other candidates, with the main
• 0:35
  challenge being from Brian Mundubill of the TOMS Alliance's National
• 0:39
  Reconciliation Party for Unity and Prosperity and his running mate
• 0:43
  mckebbi Zulu. Hichilima won the election in the first round
• 0:47
  with sixty point four to nine percent of the vote.
• 0:50
  Mundubile received thirty seven point eight seven percent. In the
• 0:54
  National Assembly, the UPND won a majority, obtaining one hundred
• 0:58
  sixty of the two hundred seven seventy eight seats. The
• 1:01
  NRPUP came second with seventy six seats. Independents, smaller parties
• 1:08
  and directly appointed members received the remaining forty two seats.
• 1:12
  Mondebillay alleged Tanzanian interference in the election. He was arrested
• 1:16
  in a raid while the votes were being counted and
• 1:19
  refused to accept the results. International observers reported that the
• 1:23
  election was free and transparent, but not fair due to
• 1:27
  misuse of state resources and restrictions on opposition campaigns. The
• 1:31
  same raid that resulted in Mundabile's arrest saw the arrest
• 1:34
  of ten additional people and the death of Mutotue Kafwaya,
• 1:38
  a former minister. Hakainde Hicchelima, often known by his initials
• 1:43
  h H and the nickname Bally, is a Zambian businessman, farmer,
• 1:47
  and politician who is the seventh and current President of
• 1:50
  Zambia since the twenty fourth of August twenty twenty one.
• 1:54
  After having contested five previous elections in two thousand six,
• 1:58
  two thousand eight, twenty eleven, twenty fifteen and twenty sixteen,
• 2:02
  he won his first election in the twenty twenty one
• 2:05
  presidential election. In the twenty twenty sixth presidential election, he
• 2:09
  was re elected to a second term. He has led
• 2:12
  the United Party for National Development since two thousand six,
• 2:16
  following the death of party founder Anderson Mozoka. Prior to
• 2:20
  his election, Hicchilima was a major opponent of Edgar Lungu,
• 2:24
  the President of Zambia from twenty fifteen to twenty twenty one.
• 2:28
  On the eleventh of April twenty seventeen, Hitchilima was arrested
• 2:31
  and charged with treason, a move that was seen as
• 2:34
  an illegitimate act by Lungu to silence a political rival.
• 2:38
  The arrest and charge were widely condemned, with protests held
• 2:42
  in Zambia and abroad demanding Hitchialima's release and condemning the
• 2:46
  increasing authoritarianism of Lungu's regime. Hitchilima was released from prison
• 2:51
  on the sixteenth of August twenty seventeen, and the charge
• 2:54
  of treason was dropped. That's it for now. See the
• 2:59
  episode note for sources and licensing. Thank you.