Zambia’s president, Hakainde Hichilema, was declared the winner of a second term early Tuesday morning, after a tumultuous campaign in which he shrugged off accusations of repression and touted his efforts to reinvigorate the nation’s all-important mining sector.
Mr. Hichilema won 60 percent of the vote, according to the Electoral Commission of Zambia.
Rich in copper and other critical minerals, Zambia, a landlocked country in southern Africa, has been at the center of a geopolitical contest, as the Trump administration attempts to unlock greater American access to the country’s natural resources, which Chinese businesses currently dominate.
Mr. Hichilema will have to navigate a delicate path forward, after his government openly clashed with the United States this year, accusing the Trump administration of demanding access to Zambia’s critical minerals in exchange for aid funding. Zambia has sought for months to strike a deal to receive health assistance from the United States, and the two countries have yet to publicly announce an agreement.
In addition to his foreign policy challenges, Mr. Hichilema, 64, has work to do on relations at home.
The reputation he brought into office five years ago as a good-government reformer was tarnished amid allegations that he had tried to consolidate power and quash dissent. During the election campaign, opposition leaders were arrested, the vote count was temporarily suspended and independent monitors accused the incumbent of using state resources to his advantage.
Even before the final results were announced, Brian Mundubile, the top opposition candidate, decried the process. He declared himself the winner and suggested, without offering evidence, that the results could have been manipulated.
Things took a dramatic turn over the weekend when the Zambian government announced that the police had launched a nighttime raid on a house that resulted in an exchange of gunfire and the arrest of several prominent opposition politicians. They were accused of planning an insurrection with the help of foreign militia. Mr. Mundubile was at the house when it was raided, the government said, but he was not among those arrested.
The family members of one of those arrested, Bishop Trevor Mwamba of the Anglican Church, had raised concern that they had not heard from him for at least two days and did not know his whereabouts.
Mr. Mundubile rejected what he called “political allegations” against the opposition.
“We do not support violence, nor do we support any attempt to overthrow the constitutional order of our country,” he wrote on social media.
Government critics have framed the arrests as an attempt by Mr. Hichilema’s administration to intimidate those who oppose him, and call it part of a broader pattern of repression during his five years in office. His government has passed laws that civil society organizations say are meant to muzzle dissent and restrict press freedom.
In the lead-up to the election, African and European observer missions reported that supporters of the president’s party, the United Party for National Development, had attacked opposition rallies. They also raised concern that while opposition parties were prevented from holding events under rules of the electoral calendar, Mr. Hichilema and his vice president were able to rally supporters under the guise of official state duties. And state media was overwhelmingly favorable toward the president, observers said.
A day after the polls closed last Thursday, the electoral commission temporarily suspended counting, saying that some election workers had been attacked and ballots had been stolen. Election monitors and civil society groups raised concerns that the delay in counting could lead citizens to doubt the credibility of the electoral process.
But Mr. Hichilema and his supporters have rejected assertions that freedoms have been restricted during his tenure. Indeed, some of the observer missions reported that the election ran more smoothly than in 2021, with fewer complaints of violence. Mr. Hichilema’s government passed a law allowing greater access to government documents.
The president has touted economic progress since he took office, including restructuring the nation’s massive debt, reducing inflation and investing more in social spending.
