Masheke Akashambatwa, a senior figure in the governing UPND, has broken ranks with party colleagues fighting their own parliamentary losses in court. He says the election was free and fair, and that petitioning it is abusing the courts.
By The Zambian Economist Analyst | Lusaka | 2 September 2026
Key Takeaways
- Senior UPND member Masheke Akashambatwa says colleagues who lost parliamentary seats and are now petitioning the results are abusing the courts, even while accepting that filing a petition is their legal right.
- His comments follow a wave of petitions at the Lusaka High Court that grew from six by 31 August to roughly 30 by 1 September, according to Lusaka Times.
- Most of the people he is talking about are not the opposition. Former ministers Paul Kabuswe and Sylvia Masebo, and ex-MP Sunday Chanda, all stood on the UPND’s own ticket and lost.
- UPND’s national leadership has taken a softer line. Deputy spokesperson Elvis Nkandu says the party did not instruct anyone to petition, and elections chairperson Likando Mufalali says each case will be judged on its merits.
- Petitioners are citing specific grounds, including alleged vote-buying, violence and breaches of the Electoral Process Act, not simply disappointment with the count. The High Court must rule on each petition within 90 days of filing.
What Akashambatwa said
Reacting to the petitions filed by his own party colleagues, Akashambatwa did not mince his words. “What is there to petition in an election which was deemed free and fair?” he said, in comments shared with The Zambian Economist. “While it is your right to file a petition, at this point you are abusing the courts.”
Akashambatwa is a United States-based UPND figure known for commenting publicly, and often bluntly, on matters inside his own party. His target here is not Brian Mundubile’s opposition NRPUP. It is the string of UPND members who lost their own seats on 13 August and have since gone to court to try to overturn the result.
The petitions he’s talking about
By 31 August, six parliamentary results were before the Lusaka High Court, as The Zambian Economist reported at the time. Paul Kabuswe, a former minister, was challenging his loss in Chililabombwe on the Copperbelt. Sylvia Masebo, also a former minister, was challenging her defeat in Chongwe. Sunday Chanda, who had publicly conceded his Kanchibiya seat just two weeks earlier, reversed course and petitioned it too. Four of the six petitioners ran on the UPND ticket.
The list has since grown well beyond those six. Lusaka Times reported roughly 30 parliamentary petitions filed at the Lusaka and Livingstone High Courts by 1 September, reaching constituencies including Ndola Central, Mwandi, Nchanga, Nkana, Kalabo South, Bangweulu, Siavonga and Zambezi Central. That scale, not any single case, appears to be what prompted Akashambatwa’s comment.
A more careful line from the party
UPND’s own leadership has been notably less dismissive. Deputy spokesperson Elvis Nkandu told News Diggers that the party had not instructed any losing candidate to petition, and pushed back on the idea that the petitions say anything about one-party rule. Elections chairperson Likando Mufalali went further, saying there is no guarantee any petition will succeed and that each will be decided on its own merits.
That gap between one senior member’s public irritation and the party’s official neutrality is itself part of the story. It suggests Akashambatwa is speaking for himself, not for UPND as an institution. Kabuswe, Masebo and Chanda had not publicly responded to his remark at the time of publication.
What the petitioners are alleging
The petitions are not simply a record of disappointment. According to Lusaka Times, petitioners have cited malpractice and non-compliance with the Electoral Process Act, vote-buying, violence and intimidation at polling stations, and irregularities in how some results were counted and announced. Under the Constitution, a parliamentary petition must be filed within seven days of a seat’s declaration, and the High Court has 90 days from filing to decide it. Either side can appeal to the Constitutional Court within seven days of judgment.
Why it matters beyond the courtroom
None of the pending petitions threaten UPND’s hold on power. The party won 160 of the National Assembly’s 278 seats against 76 for Mundubile’s NRPUP, a margin no handful of by-elections could close. What the petitions do cost is time and money: court registries occupied for months, sitting MPs administering Constituency Development Fund allocations while their own election is under review, and, for any constituency where a petition succeeds, a fresh campaign and a by-election bill on top of a result voters thought was settled.
For now, the more immediate cost is political. A week into Hichilema’s second term, a senior figure in his own party is publicly telling other members of that party to drop their cases, while UPND’s official spokespeople are choosing their words rather more carefully.
Related reading
- Six Parliamentary Seats Challenged Before the Lusaka High Court
- Sunday Chanda Concedes Kanchibiya Seat, Defends His Bill 7 Vote in Farewell Statement
- Hichilema Takes the Oath as His Second Term Begins at National Heroes Stadium
- Ten Days That Tested Zambia: Hichilema’s Re-election, Sealed Courts and a Cooling Inflation Rate
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