President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia delivers his speech during the inaugural session of the Zimbabwe-Zambia Bi-National Commission held in Harare, on November 14, 2025. [AFP]
Zambia President Hakainde Hichilema will be sworn in for a second term next week, the cabinet said Tuesday, despite uncertainty whether a challenge to his election victory was validly filed.
Hichilema won re-election with around 60 percent of the vote, but opposition leader Brian Mundubile, who came second, alleged fraud and vowed to challenge the result in court.
The southern Africa country closed its courts on Monday, citing "security reasons", on the final day of a seven-day window for filing a petition against the presidential result.
The cabinet said the judiciary had received no petition and that Hichilema would be sworn in on Tuesday, September 1.
The judiciary, however, said the chief justice had received a petition from a member of the public on his private email address challenging the result.
It called the submission "highly irregular" but said the chief justice had referred it to the Constitutional Court for consideration.
It was not immediately clear whether the court would accept the petition or whether it could affect Hichilema's planned inauguration.