Socialist Party candidate Brian Hapunda closed his campaign for the newly created Chongwe West seat with a call for calm, issue-based politics, ahead of Thursday’s vote.
With polls opening on Thursday, Brian Hapunda used his closing message to Chongwe West voters to repeat the theme that has run through his campaign since he filed his nomination in May: fresh leadership built around delivery rather than rhetoric.
“Let us give Chongwe West Constituency a fresh start and a strong voice. Chongwe West deserves a sober and issue-based leadership,” Hapunda said in his final appeal to the constituency.
A New Seat, A Crowded Field
Chongwe West did not exist as a constituency before this year. It was carved out of Chongwe under the Electoral Commission of Zambia’s 2026 delimitation exercise, and it enters Thursday’s election with 53,269 registered voters spread across 10 wards. That has made it one of the more closely watched new seats in Lusaka Province, with Hapunda running against an independent field that includes Bernadette Deka-Zulu and former Chongwe mayor Geoffrey Chumbwe, among others.
Hapunda has stood on the Socialist Party ticket throughout the race, even after publicly backing NRPUP’s Brian Mundubile for the presidency rather than his own party’s Fred M’membe. He has described the two positions as compatible, framing his parliamentary bid as separate from the presidential contest.
The Pitch: CDF Transparency and Farmer Land Security
Hapunda’s campaign has centred on the Constituency Development Fund, which he has said should be managed openly and channelled into roads, clinics, skills training and small business support. He has also made land security for farmers a recurring theme, arguing that Chongwe’s agricultural base, an area he has described as feeding Lusaka, has not translated into title deeds or market access for the people who work the land.
Youth employment and upgrades to schools and health facilities round out the platform he has campaigned on since May.
What Is At Stake For Chongwe West
For a newly delimited constituency, Thursday’s result will set the baseline for how CDF allocations, land administration and infrastructure spending are prioritised in Chongwe West going forward. Whoever wins inherits a constituency where the boundaries, and the expectations attached to them, are only months old.
Voting takes place on 13 August, with results expected to be processed through ECZ’s National Results Centre in the days that follow.
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