🇿🇲 CAMPAIGN WATCH | Hichilema Reclaims Central Belt as Development Anchors Serenje Push
President Hakainde Hichilema on Sunday carried his re-election campaign into Serenje District, extending what has become a carefully sequenced march across strategic electoral terrain as the UPND seeks to consolidate support beyond its traditional strongholds.
Before a large rally, the Head of State framed the election as a choice between continuity and reversal, presenting development rather than political rhetoric as the centrepiece of his appeal.
Addressing thousands of supporters, Hichilema thanked residents for what he described as their confidence in his administration.
“Ba Serenje for turning out in numbers today and giving us an assurance that come August you will give us votes for continued peace, security and national development,” he said.
He followed the political appeal with a broader national message: “We are one Zambia, one Nation and one people.”
The President also returned to one of the dominant themes of his campaign — contrasting the political environment before 2021 with the present. He argued that Serenje, like many parts of the country, had experienced years in which political violence restricted civic participation before his administration restored public order.
“This is not time to go back to those old bad days but moving forward,” Hichilema said, insisting that his government remained committed to “distributing the national cake equally.”
Development formed the backbone of his address. Hichilema credited increased Constituency Development Fund allocations with unlocking projects that had stalled for years and argued that the expanded CDF has shifted decision-making closer to local communities.
The message fits neatly into the UPND’s wider electoral strategy, where free education, CDF, social programmes and infrastructure are increasingly presented not simply as policy achievements but as reasons for voters to renew the party’s mandate.
Politically, Serenje carries significance beyond a routine campaign stop. Located in Central Province, the district sits within an electoral corridor where both the ruling party and the opposition are seeking to expand their footprint ahead of polling day.
While the UPND has spent the opening phase of its campaign reinforcing support in provinces that delivered decisive victories in 2021, it has simultaneously used those platforms to project an image of national reach rather than regional concentration.
The President concluded his address in Bemba, signalling a deliberate effort to connect culturally with local voters.
“Ba Serenje nga impanga ya ba Lala, fwebo twatoleta. Lesa amipale. Katutwalile ukutwala ichalo chesu kuntashi,” he said, telling residents that his government had delivered and urging them to continue moving Zambia forward.
The closing remarks reinforced a campaign register that increasingly blends local identity with a national development narrative.
With Western Province now behind him and Central Province taking centre stage, Hichilema’s campaign caravan continues to trace a deliberate electoral map.
The strategy is becoming clearer with each stop: defend the governing coalition’s established heartlands, deepen its footprint in competitive constituencies, and persuade voters that the election is less a contest of promises than a referendum on whether the country’s current development trajectory should continue.
© The People’s Brief | Ollus R. Ndomu
