Tonse Alliance president Brian Mundubile has accused the Local Government Commission of attempting to manipulate the August 13 general election, alleging the body has been holding unnecessary meetings with council secretaries across the country at taxpayers’ expense. Speaking at a rally in Nchelenge District on Friday, he called on residents to demand answers from the Commission over what he described as suspicious activity ahead of polling day.
Mundubile told the gathering that the Commission was moving around the country to hold meetings with local government and council secretaries under the guise of routine business, but argued the timing and frequency of the engagements pointed to something more deliberate. He urged supporters to scrutinise the conduct of local officials and avoid participating in what he termed unlawful instructions, while assuring them that his party would investigate and act if elected.
The Tonse Alliance leader also turned his fire on President Hakainde Hichilema, accusing him of hypocrisy after the Head of State reportedly described opposition figures as engaged in vote-rigging. Mundubile argued that it was the Local Government Commission’s own conduct that deserved scrutiny, rather than the opposition’s, and challenged Hichilema to investigate his own administration’s institutions before levelling accusations elsewhere.
Setting out his own governance pledges, Mundubile promised a merit-based, depoliticised civil service should Tonse Alliance win power, alongside a debt swap arrangement intended to relieve civil servants struggling with existing credit obligations. He said the current system had left workers pressured by debt they could not repay, and pledged reforms that would allow the public service to focus on delivery rather than survival.
On mining, Mundubile promised to decentralise the registration of licences, moving the process from Lusaka to district level so that cooperatives could benefit directly from resources extracted in their own areas. He was direct about the shift in approach. “This government of today does not think about you,” he told the crowd, arguing that mining licences currently registered in Lusaka left local communities disconnected from decisions over resources extracted from their own land. He told the Nchelenge crowd that cooperatives would be able to access machinery on credit under his administration, with ownership transferring to them permanently once payments were completed.
Turning to Luapula’s economic prospects, Mundubile pledged support for aquaculture through cage fish farming, arguing the province’s rivers had been overlooked despite their potential. “This is why me and my running mate are going to give you aquaculture empowerment through cage fish farming, so that we are able to store fish and later on harvest it,” he said. He also raised concerns over medicine shortages at local health facilities, alleging that supplies procured from Egypt, comprising dozens of containers, had instead been left stored at private houses while patients went without treatment, a practice he vowed to end if elected.
The Nchelenge rally also produced a significant realignment within the opposition, after Citizens First (CF) running mate Moses Mawere publicly broke with party president Harry Kalaba and endorsed Mundubile for the presidency, naming Makebi Zulu as his preferred running mate. Mawere told the crowd his priority was a united opposition capable of removing the UPND from power, saying his decision followed months of frustration with a fragmented opposition unable to present Zambians with a single alternative. He argued continued division only strengthened the ruling party’s position heading into August.
Kalaba, responding in a statement issued the same day, said he would welcome Mawere back into the Tonse Alliance fold should he choose to formally join, describing him as a brother despite the public split. Kalaba maintained that Citizens First had already thrown its weight behind the Tonse Alliance, having exited the rival Orange Alliance together with Chishimba Kambwili, and suggested the defection changed little in terms of the party’s own strategic direction.
The combination of the manipulation allegations and the high-profile defection gave the Nchelenge rally added significance in a campaign season already marked by shifting alliances and mounting claims and counter-claims over the integrity of the electoral process. Neither the Local Government Commission nor the Electoral Commission of Zambia had responded to Mundubile‘s specific allegations at the time of publication.
