How Hichilema’s lawfare subverts democracy

When Zambia experienced democratic backsliding between 2011 and 2021, the deliberate use of legal mechanisms to weaken opposition parties played a central role. In a Mail & Guardian analysis, Sishuwa Sishuwa notes that lawfare has been a constant theme of Zambian politics in the era of multiparty democracy. ‘This use of the law by the executive to achieve partisan goals has historically been aided by structural conditions such as a poorly institutionalised party system and recurrent disregard for the Constitution and other laws by state actors. The defeat of Edgar Lungu and his Patriotic Front in the August 2021 election raised prospects for a stronger legal foundation that would address the conditions that enabled the previous government to engage in legal autocracy. Nearly three years after the election of President Hakainde Hichilema and his United Party for National Development, the situation has hardly changed. Like his predecessors, Hichilema, faced with the prospects of defeat in August 2026 owing to a faltering economy and a country deeply divided on ethnic-regional lines by his actions, has employed lawfare to weaken his political opponents and secure re-election.’

Sishuwa argues that Hichilema has devised specific strategies for this latest wave of legal autocratisation using five key institutions: the judiciary, police, parliament, electoral commission and the civil service. ‘Hichilema appears to have decided that to win re-election, he does not need to deliver on his campaign promises but can simply use the law to manipulate institutions to serve his partisan interests. At a recent press conference, he threatened to unleash the military on those complaining of ethnic-regional marginalisation, if the police failed to deal decisively with them. This provides the earliest indication of his willingness to declare a state of emergency if opposition to his leadership gathers momentum. The lure of authoritarian powers appears to be very hard to resist. Evidence is mounting that Hichilema, whose Western allies have maintained an incriminating silence amid this well-orchestrated assault on human rights and democracy for fear of driving him into the arms of China, is no democrat. He is Edgar Lungu with a better PR.'