Manufactured Insurgency, Subverted Ballots: The UN Rapporteur Is Right About Zambia’s Crisis- Thandiwe Ketiš Ngoma
By Thandiwe Ketiš Ngoma
Manufactured Insurgency, Subverted Ballots: The UN Rapporteur Is Right About Zambia’s Crisis
The statement issued on September 2, 2026, by UN Special Rapporteur Gina Romero is a vital, unequivocal validation of what millions of Zambians endured during and after the August 13 general elections. The non-bailable treason charges leveled against opposition presidential candidate Hon. Brian Mundubile, his running mate Makebi Zulu, and their coalition partners are not about defending national security; they are concocted allegations engineered by President Hakainde Hichilema’s administration.
By rebranding the main political opposition as an “armed insurgency”, the state is attempting to construct a smoke screen to conceal massive electoral irregularities, state-sanctioned violence, and the fatal security raid on opposition leadership.
Pre-Election Warning Signs: The Cancellation of RightsCon
The post-election repression was foreshadowed months earlier when the government executed a de facto cancellation of RightsCon Lusaka—the world’s premier global summit on technology and human rights—just days before its opening. The sudden administrative withdrawal and ideological vetting signaled a state apparatus actively shutting down international scrutiny to prepare for a heavy-handed electoral strategy.
What followed during and immediately after the August 13 election would only deepen those concerns.
Widespread Irregularities and Violence at Polling Stations
Reports from voting centers across the nation painted a clear picture of compromised integrity.
1. Stolen Ballot Papers
In several polling stations, pockets of violence erupted where ballot papers were forcibly seized in full view of police personnel who failed to intervene. A blatant example occurred in Mandevu Constituency, where a known UPND cadre, commonly identified as Kalufyanya, snatched marked ballot papers in full view of armed police officers who made no attempt to stop him.
The stolen ballot papers were later discovered disposed of in a nearby sewage line, completely destroying the integrity of the vote in that precinct.
2. Tear Gas Fired into Counting Rooms
In Kabwe, security forces deployed tear gas directly inside an active counting facility. The resulting panic forced electoral observers, agents, and polling staff to flee, leaving unverified ballot boxes completely unguarded.
A process that should have been protected by transparency and impartiality was instead plunged into chaos and fear.
3. Unconstitutional Blackout on Results
In a move that heightened public suspicion, the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) abruptly halted the counting and announcement of presidential results for almost six hours
This protracted silence without a valid constitutional basis compromised the chain of custody for vote tallies across the country.
The question was no longer simply who had won. The deeper question became whether the electoral process itself could still be trusted.
Discrepancies on Gen 20 Forms and the Assault on Opposition Stakeholders
As the ECZ resumed declaring official results, major discrepancies emerged between the figures being announced at the national tabulating center and the verified totals recorded on local Gen 20 forms.
When Mr. Enock Roosevelt Tonga—leader of the Third Liberation Movement and an accredited election stakeholder representing main opposition leader Hon. Brian Mundubile under the NRPUP/Tonse Alliance banner—attempted to formally raise a point of order questioning these clear numerical mismatches, the Commission ordered his immediate removal from the floor.
State commandos, acting alongside ruling UPND cadres, manhandled Mr. Tonga and forcibly dragged him from the national tallying center. He was subsequently taken into police custody, where he remains detained without formal charge—his only “offense” being the demand for transparency in line with electoral regulations.
The treatment of an accredited stakeholder for questioning electoral figures transformed what should have been an exercise in democratic accountability into an exercise in intimidation.
The Kabulonga Raid and the Death of Hon. Mutotwe Kafwaya
The post-election crackdown then turned lethal on the evening of August 14, 2026.
A Joint Task Force executed a heavy night raid on the Kabulonga residence of main opposition presidential candidate Hon. Brian Mundubile.
During the raid, state security personnel opened fire. Former Transport Minister and Lunte MP Hon. Mutotwe Kafwaya sustained fatal gunshot wounds.
For nearly five days, senior government representatives explicitly rejected reports of Kafwaya’s death. The state’s narrative collapsed only when Kafwaya’s spouse, Mrs. Dinis Ng’andu Kafwaya, filed an urgent habeas corpus application in the High Court seeking to compel state security forces to produce her husband.
Under direct judicial compulsion, the Zambia Police released a statement on August 19 finally acknowledging that Kafwaya had died from gunshot wounds.
That sequence of events demands answers that cannot simply be buried beneath a new political narrative.
Who ordered the raid? Who opened fire? Under whose command were the officers operating? And why did the state initially deny the death?
From a Fatal Raid to a “Militia” Narrative
It was against this deeply contested background that treason charges were subsequently leveled against Brian Mundubile, Makebi Zulu, and their coalition partners.
Levying treason charges against them immediately following these revelations is a transparent effort to rebrand an extrajudicial killing as a defense against a “militia”, deflecting accountability from those who ordered the fatal raid.
By transforming political opponents into an alleged armed insurgency, the state creates a powerful narrative in which extraordinary measures—arrests, military deployments, prolonged detention and severe criminal charges—can be presented as necessary national-security responses.
But national security cannot become a convenient shield against accountability.
Judicial Blockade: The Closure of Courts on Petition Day
The electoral crisis was compounded by what followed in the judiciary.
Following widespread evidence of rigging and procedural violations, opposition candidate Hon. Brian Mundubile publicly announced his intent to challenge the presidential election outcome in the Constitutional Court.
Under Article 105 of the Zambian Constitution, an election petition must be filed within a strict seven-day window following the declaration of results.
Yet on August 24, 2026—the precise deadline for lodging the presidential petition—Chief Justice Dr. Mumba Malila ordered the unprecedented, nationwide closure of court premises.
Citing vague “security reasons,” state forces deployed police tape and armed personnel to block access to the Supreme Court, High Court, and Constitutional Court facilities across Lusaka, Ndola, Livingstone, and Chipata.
By physically locking the doors of the judiciary, the state denied the opposition its constitutional right to seek legal redress before the deadline expired.
An election can be contested. A result can be defended. But when the doors of the courts are closed precisely when a constitutional deadline is expiring, the very mechanism designed to resolve electoral disputes is placed beyond reach.
The UN Rapporteur’s Warning
It is against this backdrop that the September 2 statement by UN Special Rapporteur Gina Romero becomes so significant.
Her intervention cuts through the government’s attempt to reduce the crisis to a simple matter of national security.
The central issue is not merely whether the government has the power to prosecute individuals accused of serious crimes. The deeper issue is whether criminal law and national-security allegations are being deployed to silence legitimate political opposition, suppress dissent, and prevent scrutiny of an election whose integrity has been seriously questioned.
The UN warning therefore deserves to be taken seriously—not dismissed as foreign interference or political commentary.
It is a warning about the consequences of allowing political disagreements to be transformed into existential security threats.
Demand for Justice: Release the Political Prisoners
The decent and constitutional thing the UPND government must do is immediately release Hon. Brian Mundubile, Makebi Zulu, and all alliance members from Mukobeko Maximum Security Prison, where they are currently held under trumped-up capital charges.
Furthermore, the state owes the nation a full, transparent explanation:
Who killed Hon. Mutotwe Kafwaya?
Rather than hiding behind fabricated treason allegations to keep opposition leaders locked in a maximum-security facility, the government must name the officers involved in the raid and allow an independent, internationally monitored investigation into who ordered the fatal shooting.
There can be no genuine national healing without accountability. There can be no credible democracy where political opponents are treated as enemies of the state. And there can be no rule of law if the courts themselves can be closed when citizens need them most.
When the Constitution Becomes a Casualty
When state security forces disrupt counting with tear gas, assault stakeholders for asking basic questions about Gen 20 forms, conceal fatalities for five days, shutter the nation’s courts to block an election petition, and lock up opposition leaders in Mukobeko Maximum Prison on manufactured capital charges, the constitutional order has collapsed.
This is why the UN Special Rapporteur’s warning matters.
The danger is no longer confined to one election, one opposition coalition, or one group of political detainees. The danger is the normalization of a system in which elections can be disputed, dissent can be criminalized, security forces can become instruments of political power, and constitutional remedies can become inaccessible precisely when they are needed most.
As UN Special Rapporteur Gina Romero rightly emphasized, these fabricated treason charges set a dangerous precedent that must be immediately dropped to restore democratic integrity and the rule of law.
Zambia cannot build peace by criminalizing political opposition.
It cannot restore confidence by silencing questions.
And it cannot claim constitutional democracy while the Constitution’s own safeguards are rendered inaccessible.
When ballots are questioned, the answer must be transparency.
When allegations are made, the answer must be evidence.
When lives are lost, the answer must be an independent investigation.
And when democracy is threatened, the answer must never be silence.