President Hakainde Hichilema is set to go toe to toe with Brian Mundubile in Zambia's national elections this month.
The present pre-election atmosphere is worrying many Zambians as it is marked, as evidenced by the objective information available, by an organised and systematic agenda of retaliation, by the governmental spheres, against the political and civic platforms of the opposition in a manifest and clear intention of the president, Hakainde Hichilema, of perpetuating himself in power.
This panorama is aggravated by the persecutions, intimidation and arrests that, practically on a daily basis, are carried out against key figures of the citizenry committed to the future of the country.
Thus, political leaders and militants, former diplomats, communicators and social activists are preferential and recurrent victims of this campaign that tactically seeks to silence, censor and remove from both the political game and the structural leadership of the country those who can hinder Hichilema's reelection.
The acting president has been operating this machinery for at least five months and this environment that is at odds with transparent and democratic norms even managed to get the challenger to the presidency, Brian Muntayalwa Mundubile, candidate of the National Reconciliation Party for Unity and Prosperity (NRPUP), suspended his physical presence at a rally, which was to be held in the Southern Province, last Sunday, August 9, after receiving, at the last minute, a security alert informing him of the possible attempt on his life, according to Zambian media reports.
