State broadcaster ZNBC reported that Brian Mundubile and running mate Makebi Zulu surrendered to police and were questioned with their lawyers present. Human Rights Watch said authorities closed and cordoned off courts on the final day for a presidential-election challenge, preventing Mundubile from filing. DW said the handover, reported two weeks after the disputed vote, had not been independently confirmed beyond ZNBC's account.
Human Rights Watch reported that Zambian authorities closed and cordoned off courts nationwide on August 24. It was the final day for a constitutional challenge to President Hakainde Hichilema's declared re-election. The group said the closure effectively prevented opposition candidate Brian Mundubile from filing with the Constitutional Court; police called the action an ‘intelligence-led and preventive measure’ without elaborating.[2]
State broadcaster ZNBC reported that Mundubile and his running mate Makebi Zulu surrendered to police on Thursday and were interviewed with their lawyers present. Police spokesman Godfrey Chilabi said a statement would follow after the interviews. DW stressed that the account of the handover had not been independently confirmed beyond ZNBC's report.[1]
Authorities declared Hichilema the winner with 60.7 per cent against Mundubile's 38 per cent; Mundubile alleged serious irregularities in the count. DW reported that the opposition candidate had been in hiding since police raids the day after the vote and intended to challenge the result in court. The government accuses him of national-security offences and plotting an insurgency; those remain government allegations. Taken together, Human Rights Watch's finding on the court closure and the timing of the surrender reported by DW suggest that the two developments may have narrowed Mundubile's options for challenging the election result in sequence. The timing does not establish that the two steps were coordinated: police presented the court closure as an intelligence-led response to an undisclosed security threat, and the surrender may instead have been connected to the separate national-security allegations against Mundubile.[2], [1]
