Zambia Police Summon Opposition Leader as Post-Election Tensions Rise

Zambian police have summoned opposition leader Brian Mundubile for questioning over alleged threats to national security, marking a sharp escalation in the aftermath of a disputed presidential election.

The August 13 poll was expected to deliver a comfortable re-election for President Hakainde Hichilema, who came to power in 2021 in the mineral-rich Southern African nation. Official results gave Hichilema 60 percent of the vote, but the opposition's unexpectedly strong performance was followed by a wave of arrests and allegations of vote-rigging.

Two independent observer reports found indications that Hichilema's vote count was inflated, though they concluded he would have won regardless. The president has denied any fraud.

Mundubile, who plans to challenge the results in court, has gone into hiding. In a statement late Thursday, police said they wanted to interview him and his running mate, Makebi Zulu, who they said had sought refuge "under international law with a known international organisation." The questioning aims to establish links between the two and "various alarming activities... which have the potential to threaten or undermine national security."

Last Friday, security forces raided a property where Mundubile was present, arresting 11 people, some of them his associates, on accusations of possessing materials for an armed insurrection. Former minister Mutotwe Kafwaya was shot dead during the operation. The government has not brought charges or publicly produced evidence supporting the allegations, drawing condemnation from international organisations.

Mundubile could not be reached for comment but has previously dismissed the allegations as fabricated.

Nicole Beardsworth, a politics lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, called the post-election fallout surprising given Hichilema's expected victory. "This is completely out of the bounds of the ordinary for Zambia," she said.

The opposition faces a deadline of early Tuesday — one week after results were announced — to file an election challenge in court. But Beardsworth noted that the arrests of senior party members and the police summons may make that difficult.