Key takeaways
- Former Kanchibiya MP Sunday Chanda has withdrawn the election petition he filed against the 2026 parliamentary result, in a statement issued on 5 September 2026.
- Chanda says he had “justiciable grounds” to proceed but chose to stand down in favour of what he calls a peaceful handover to his successor.
- He has symbolically passed leadership to his predecessor, Hon. Sampa Muswema, who returns to the seat.
- The 2025 constitutional delimitation splits the old Kanchibiya constituency into two seats, which Chanda says could roughly double CDF allocation across the same area, from about K40 million to an estimated K80 million, subject to annual budget allocations.
- Chanda lists five years of CDF-funded projects as MP, including three bridges, three mini-hospitals, two mortuaries and a planned youth skills centre, as the record he is leaving behind.
- He has urged his successor to work with the Hichilema government rather than continue his own political disputes.
Sunday Chanda, the former Member of Parliament for Kanchibiya, has withdrawn the court petition he filed against the outcome of the 2026 parliamentary election in his constituency. He announced the decision in a lengthy statement issued on 5 September 2026, three weeks after conceding the seat.
Chanda says he had “justiciable grounds upon which to challenge the election result” and that supporters had encouraged him to proceed. He chose instead to discontinue the case, framing the decision as one made “in the interest of peace, development and the people of Kanchibiya” after what he describes as consultation and reflection. He has symbolically handed leadership of the constituency back to his predecessor, Hon. Sampa Muswema, who returns to the seat he held before Chanda’s own five-year tenure began in 2021.
What changes for Kanchibiya’s CDF money
The most concrete economic detail in Chanda’s statement concerns Constituency Development Fund allocations. Bill 7, the constitutional amendment he backed against warnings it would cost him politically, has now delimited the old Kanchibiya constituency into two separate seats. That means two Members of Parliament and two separate CDF allocations covering roughly the same geographical area.
Chanda’s own estimate, based on the previous K40 million CDF allocation to the undivided constituency, is that the split geographical area could now draw close to K80 million in combined CDF resources, subject to the annual allocations Parliament actually approves. He frames that doubling, rather than the fate of his own petition, as the more consequential outcome of the past electoral cycle for Kanchibiya’s development budget.
The five-year record Chanda points to
In the statement, Chanda lists the CDF-funded infrastructure delivered during his term as the 8th Member of Parliament for Kanchibiya since 2021. He cites the Kaonda Bridge over the Lwitikila River and the Aluni Bridge over the Kanchibiya River as the first bridges built across those rivers since independence in 1964, alongside the Washeni Bridge. He also lists three mini-hospitals under construction or lobbied for at Chalabesa, Luchembe and Mpepo, two mortuaries built using increased CDF, and a health facility at Munkunta.
Other projects named in the statement include what he describes as an emerging Kanchibiya Central Business District, comprising a civic centre, National Assembly office, Office of the President block and police infrastructure, the Chinkobo–Chambeshi road now under rehabilitation, Katumba Boarding Secondary School, a planned youth skills training centre, and network towers at four sites. None of these figures have been independently verified by this publication and are presented as Chanda’s own account of his record.
A petition dropped, not a concession of the process
Chanda is explicit that withdrawing the petition should not be read as an admission that he had no grounds to contest the result. Zambia’s High Court has been hearing a batch of parliamentary election petitions from the 2026 cycle, including six seats challenged in Lusaka, and Chanda’s case had been part of that wider post-election legal traffic before he chose to discontinue it.
His statement also revisits his support for Bill 7 and the delimitation exercise, a position he says drew warnings at the time that it was “politically suicidal.” He argues the doubled CDF allocation now available across the delimited area vindicates that decision, regardless of the outcome of his own re-election bid.
What it means for the incoming MP and Kanchibiya residents
For residents and local contractors, the practical near-term question is how quickly the incoming MP and constituency office translate the larger combined CDF pool into disbursed projects, since a doubled allocation only matters once it is budgeted, released and spent. Chanda has publicly urged his successor to engage the Hichilema government, traditional and religious leaders, farmers, women’s and youth groups, and civil society in pursuing that agenda, rather than carrying forward his own political disagreements.
The withdrawal also removes one of the outstanding parliamentary petitions from the courts’ post-election workload, alongside similar cases already resolved or under way elsewhere in the country.
Related coverage
- Sunday Chanda Concedes Kanchibiya Seat, Defends His Bill 7 Vote in Farewell Statement
- Six Parliamentary Seats Challenged Before the Lusaka High Court
- Zambia Courts Closed as Mundubile Election Petition Deadline Arrives
- UPND’s Akashambatwa: Colleagues’ Election Petitions Are “Abusing the Courts”
Related: Hichilema’s Second Term: What It Means for Zambia’s Economy, Markets and Diplomacy
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