Will Hakainde Hichilema win Zambia's presidency outright in the Aug 13 first round?
100% of users predicted NO — the community missed this one. 1 predictions cast.
Zambia's Electoral Commission declared incumbent President Hakainde Hichilema the winner of an outright first-round victory in the country's Aug. 13 general election, announcing final results Aug. 17-18. Hichilema won roughly 61.4% of the vote, about 2.97 million ballots, against 38% for main challenger Brian Mundubile, according to Al Jazeera and The Washington Post.
The win secures Hichilema a second five-year term without a runoff, since he cleared the majority threshold required under Zambian law. It was his seventh run for the presidency, following his first election win in 2021.
The count itself was contested: tabulation was briefly suspended amid violence at some polling stations, and opposition officials were arrested during a law enforcement raid in which gunshots were fired, according to reporting on the results. Mundubile's camp raised concerns about the conduct of the vote even as the commission proceeded to certify Hichilema's win.
The community got this one wrong: with a single vote recorded, predictors put the odds of an outright first-round win at 0%, well off the eventual result.