Chililabombwe Constituency 2026: The Five-Man Race That Should Terrify Every Candidate
The 2021 parliamentary result is now a ghost. Paul Kabuswe’s 22,112 votes against Richard Musukwa’s 10,533 was delivered on a single, undivided Chililabombwe. That map is dead. The new constituency, carved away from Konkola, has new arithmetic, old wounds, and a crowded field of five. Here is why each contender enters the arena with swagger, and why each should sleep with a candle burning.
Paul Kabuswe (UPND) — The Incumbent Walking a Thinning Tightrope
Kabuswe boasts a genuine development record and the Mines Ministry portfolio. In 2021, he humiliated a cash-flush Musukwa without fleets of political cars or mountains of regalia.
UPND’s strongholds — Kawama and Mukuka wards — remain inside the new boundaries, giving him a launchpad. If those wards mobilise heavily, Kabuswe enters election day with a built-in cushion.
But the 2021 figures whisper a warning.
The combined votes of Musukwa, Abraham Simpamba and other opposition candidates exceeded 11,800. A unified anti-UPND candidate would wipe out Kabuswe’s margin. His only insulation is a fragmented field. Fear sits with him because he cannot control whether the opposition splits five ways — or consolidates overnight.
Richard Musukwa (PF Resolute) — The Heavyweight Bleeding From Within
Musukwa returns under the PF Resolute banner alongside Makebi Zulu, determined to erase 2021’s humiliation. He leans on lingering PF loyalty in Kakoso, Kamenza East, and Yotam Muleya wards. If those old structures wake up, he could be competitive again.
The terror for Musukwa is the man who once sat inside his campaign tent. Kabwe Nsofwa Lupele was part of his 2021 machine. Now Lupele is claiming those same PF structures under the Tonse Alliance flag. And then there is Abraham Simpamba. The independent who took 985 votes in 2021 is back. In a tight race, those 985 votes — drawn largely from the same PF-leaning pool — could be the difference between victory and a second devastating loss. Musukwa needs Lupele and Simpamba to vanish. Neither will.
Abraham Simpamba (Independent) — The Small Number That Could Torpedo Giants
Simpamba’s 985 votes in 2021 look modest. But in a constituency where boundaries have shifted and loyalty is thinning, a thousand votes is a knife’s edge. He returns as an independent with a finger on the pulse of disillusioned PF voters who cannot stomach either Resolute or Tonse. His strength is his freedom from party baggage. His fear is precisely his size. Without a ward-level machine, he risks becoming the footnote who handed Kabuswe a second term by bleeding Musukwa dry.
Kabwe Nsofwa Lupele (Tonse Alliance) — The Insider With a Surname and a Secret Weapon
Lupele carries the emotional legacy of his late father, Mayor Ackwell Nsofwa Lupele. More dangerously for opponents, he carries operational memory from Musukwa’s 2021 campaign. Tonse Alliance is betting this insider knowledge can dismantle PF’s remaining house. And in Kakoso Ward — historically PF — Lupele has Kangwa Chileshe, the Tonse aspiring councillor described locally as unmatched. That gives Lupele a fighting chance where PF dominance once looked unshakeable. His fear is whether a new alliance can build the grinding door-to-door machinery that turns surname recognition into actual votes.
Lottie Ngwira (Citizens First) — The Union Voice Without a Home Ward
Ngwira’s miner’s tongue and trade union credentials speak to workers’ pain. But electoral geography has been cruel. His 2021 base was in Kasumbalesa ward — now sitting in the new Konkola constituency. In this Chililabombwe, he must build from scratch in Kamenza East, Nakatindi, and Yotam Muleya, where identities are already hardened. Without a single friendly ward, Ngwira’s voice risks echoing in an empty hall.
The Wards That Will Crown the Winner
This election will be decided in Kawama, Kamenza East, Kakoso, Mukuka, Yotam Muleya, and Nakatindi. UPND holds Kawama and Mukuka tightly. Kakoso is now a three-way knife fight between Musukwa’s PF, Lupele’s Tonse with Chileshe, and Kabuswe’s organisation. The candidate who stitches together a majority across these six wards will win. In 2021, a fragmented field let one man dominate. In 2026, a fractured opposition could do the same — or one of these five could quietly, ruthlessly, turn the arithmetic on its head. That is why none of them will rest easy.