Parley committee projects non-violent 2026 elections

The Parliamentary Committee on Legal, Human Rights and Good Governance targets a zero political violence in the 2026 general elections.

Committee Chairperson, Clement Andeleki says the next elections should be 100 percent violent free.

Dr. Andeleki said President Hakainde Hichilema has done his best to re-unit the country and that sanity has been restored.

He said the Head of State is eager to see that the peaceful environment is being sustained, hence the need to ensure the increasing trend of political violence that had characterised the previous elections, especially in 2021 is completely curtailed.

Dr. Andeleki who is also Katombola Member of Parliament said when his team called on Copperbelt Province Minister ,Elisha Matambo in Ndola today.

He said to this effect, his committee has started getting submissions and recommendations from various stakeholders, including Non-Governmental Organisations(NGOs) on how to end political violence.

Dr. Andeleki further said during the tour of three provinces namely Lusaka, Copperbelt and North Western, members of the general public will also have an opportunity to voice on what laws should be reformed and amended.

“We are literally trying to hear from the people of Zambia themselves what laws need to be changed, what laws need to be repealed, what laws need to be amended,” he said.

He stressed that the extra-judicial killings and detention of citizens by the police prior to the 2021 general election is something that should not be repeated.

And Mr. Matambo said Copperbelt witnessed a lot of suppression and violation of human rights and that people were not free to express themselves.

Mr. Matambo adds that as such, many residents felt Copperbelt was a different place from Zambia because of political violence and non-respect for citizens.

He recounted how President Hichilema, as an opposition leader by then was denied entry in the province several times.

Mr. Matambo stated that, despite the tense divisions that rocked the province, the new dawn administration has restored the sanity that many longed for.

“If you talk about human rights, this province was number one. People’s houses were brought down, vehicles were burnt and some people were forced to belong to certain religious institutions, ” he said.