Zambia - November 2023

In November, civil society organisations and commentators raised serious concerns about state interference in the leadership selection of Zambia’s main opposition party, the Patriotic Front (PF). They allege that the Office of the Registrar of Societies and the Speaker of the National Assembly acted improperly to legitimise the leadership claims of one PF faction (headed by MP Miles Sampa) over another, following the party’s highly contested elective convention in October 2023. The alleged impropriety included acting on the instructions of Sampa’s faction to change the party’s leadership in the National Assembly and in the register of political parties, at a time that the leadership was still being contested in court and in a manner that was unconstitutional and fraudulent. Sampa’s leadership of the PF was confirmed by the acting Registrar of Societies on 30 November.

Sources: Mail & Guardian, Law Association of Zambia, Times of Zambia, News Diggers