Zambians go to the polls as President Hakainde Hichilema bids for a second term, facing opposition from the Tonse Alliance amid ongoing political tensions over the legacy and burial of late former president Edgar Lungu.
Zambia's opposition faces the 2026 general election without former president Edgar Lungu, who died in June 2025. Parties are competing to inherit his political legacy and challenge incumbent Hakainde Hichilema.
Zambia's former President Edgar Lungu's family has won an appeal to bury him in South Africa, overturning a high court ruling that allowed repatriation. The Supreme Court of Appeal ruled the ex-president felt unwelcome in his home country.
Zambia has been ordered by a South African court to return the body of former President Edgar Lungu to his family, just hours after the government announced it had taken possession of the remains. The ruling is the latest twist in a 10-month dispute between Lungu's family and President Hakainde Hichilema's government over burial arrangements. Lungu died aged 68 in Pretoria last year, and the government wanted a state burial in Lusaka while his family sought a private ceremony.
Zambia authorities and Edgar Lungu's family are in a dispute over where former leader's remains should be buried.
