HH’S WHISTLE-STOP CAMPAIGN: A STRATEGY THAT LEFT HIS OPPONENTS GUESSING

HH’S WHISTLE-STOP CAMPAIGN: A STRATEGY THAT LEFT HIS OPPONENTS GUESSING

By Chris Haambote Snr.

President Hakainde Hichilema’s whistle-stop campaign has been one of the most methodical and disciplined presidential campaigns witnessed in Zambia’s recent political history. What initially appeared to some observers to be an exhausting series of rapid-fire rallies has, on closer examination, revealed itself to be a carefully orchestrated national strategy.

Many opponents mistook the President’s two-day visits to each province as the entirety of his campaign. They celebrated prematurely, believing that districts he had not visited had been abandoned. In reality, they had misread the strategy.

Under the Electoral Commission of Zambia’s campaign timetable, each presidential candidate is allocated five campaign days in every province. Rather than exhausting all five days in a single visit, President Hichilema  divided them into carefully calculated phases.

During the first phase, he spent approximately two days in each province, traversing several districts at remarkable speed and sometimes addressing seven to nine rallies within just forty-eight hours. The objective was never to cover every constituency immediately. Instead, selected districts were deliberately left untouched.

Those remaining campaign days were not forgotten; they were reserved.

The second phase then became a strategic return to provinces already visited, enabling the President to campaign in districts intentionally omitted during the first round. What appeared to critics to be gaps in the campaign were, in fact, part of the campaign itself.

Following Eastern Province, for example, attention shifted to districts such as Lufwanyama, Luanshya, Mufulira, Kalulushi and Masaiti on the Copperbelt, followed by Luwingu, Senga Hill and Nsumbu in Northern Province. Lusaka Province’s densely populated constituencies, including Kanyama, Matero, Chawama, Munali and Bauleni, may form another critical phase of the strategy.

Far from being improvised, the campaign appears to resemble a carefully planned military operation.

Students of military history may recognise similarities with the celebrated “Horns of the Buffalo” formation associated with the armies of King Shaka Zulu. In that strategy, an opponent is first fixed in place before being approached from multiple directions until every avenue has been covered. The comparison is illustrative rather than literal, but the underlying principle is similar: deliberate sequencing, comprehensive coverage and calculated timing.

The President’s return visits resemble what military planners would describe as consolidation or mopping-up operations, ensuring that no strategically important ground is left uncovered before polling day.

Perhaps the most remarkable feature has been the President’s stamina. At over sixty years of age, he has maintained a relentless pace that many younger politicians would struggle to sustain. Travelling across the breadth and length of Zambia while conducting numerous rallies each day demands exceptional physical endurance, careful planning and organisational discipline.

The campaign inevitably invites comparison with the energetic nationwide tours undertaken by John F. Kennedy during the 1960 United States presidential election. Kennedy’s relentless schedule became legendary for its intensity and reach, as he criss-crossed America in pursuit of every available vote. President Hichilema’s campaign has similarly emphasised, visibility, mobility, frequency of engagement and direct contact with a heart to heart conversation with voters across the Republic.

Meanwhile, many of his opponents appear to have expended considerable energy responding to the large crowds attending their own early rallies, mistaking attendance for electoral victory. In doing so, they may have exhausted themselves physically and financially long before the decisive stages of the campaign.

If the reported objective is indeed to secure five million votes from approximately 8.7 million registered voters, then the logic behind the strategy becomes easier to understand. Rather than concentrating on isolated headline rallies, the emphasis appears to have been on systematically covering every available district within the ECZ’s allocated campaign days.

Obviously ultimately the electoral objective will be determined by the voters. What is already evident, however, is that the campaign has been characterised by discipline, method, careful timing and national reach rather than spontaneity. Those qualities explain why what first looked like an exhausting whistle-stop tour increasingly resembles a carefully executed national campaign plan.