🇿🇲 CAMPAIGN WATCH | Hichilema Heads to North-Western as UPND Takes Re-election Bid to Its Strongholds
President Hakainde Hichilema today shifts his re-election campaign to North-Western Province, opening a regional tour that the UPND hopes will consolidate support in one of its most reliable electoral bases before expanding into more competitive battlegrounds across the country.
The President is scheduled to begin his campaign in Mwinilunga before addressing a major rally in Solwezi later today. On Thursday, the campaign moves through Chavuma, Zambezi, Kabompo and Kalumbila, as the ruling party seeks to energise its grassroots structures just weeks before Zambia votes on August 13.
The sequencing of the campaign reflects a familiar electoral strategy. Rather than immediately engaging the opposition in the former Patriotic Front strongholds, the UPND is first reinforcing what party officials often describe as its “red bases” — Southern, Western and North-Western provinces — regions that delivered overwhelming margins for Hichilema in 2021 and have since grown on the Electoral Commission’s voter register.
The objective is not merely to defend support, but to maximise turnout in areas that form the foundation of the President’s electoral coalition
From there, the campaign is expected to pivot into the Northern Circuit, where the ruling party is seeking to improve on its 2021 performance. While the Tonse Alliance has concentrated much of its campaign in Eastern, Northern, Muchinga and Luapula provinces, the UPND believes gains in those regions could prove decisive under Zambia’s 50 per cent plus one electoral system, where every additional vote contributes to an outright first-round victory.
The regional tours also underscore the contrasting approaches emerging in the presidential race. Tonse Alliance candidate Brian Mundubile is attempting to rebuild support across former PF strongholds through an aggressive promise-driven campaign, while President Hichilema is asking voters to renew his mandate on the basis of continuity, economic recovery and implementation.
With just over six weeks remaining before polling day, both campaigns are now entering the phase where organisation, provincial strategy and turnout may matter as much as rhetoric.
The People’s Brief will continue providing real-time coverage of the presidential campaigns, tracking the movements, messages, promises and policy positions of all major candidates as Zambia moves towards the August 13 General Election.
Our coverage follows the campaigns province by province, measuring not only what candidates promise, but what those promises mean for governance, the economy and the electorate.
© The People’s Brief | Goran Handya