The Presidential Two-Term Dilemma For Hakainde Hichilema And UPND

Prior to 1991, and the reintroduction of the multiparty system in Zambia, the Constitution did not bar the nation’s president from serving in office for more than the two terms now constitutionally established. This was inevitably accompanied by 27 years of President Kenneth Kaunda’s autocratic rule. The 1991 Constitution, precisely under Article 35, legally limited a president from holding office for more than two constitutional terms, thus making President Frederick Titus Chiluba the first Republican President to serve under the new Constitution and complete two presidential terms. With the enactment of the newly amended Constitution in 1991, Zambia began the long road to multiparty democracy, led by President Chiluba and the MMD. Furthermore, following President Chiluba’s re-election in 1996 and his commencement and completion of a second presidential term, Zambia entered what I politically term as the “Two-Term Dilemma”. The Two-Term Dilemma, as I use it in this context, describes the political uncertainty that emerges once a presidential incumbent has entered and completed their second and final constitutional term. At this point, the incumbent can no longer seek re-election, making a transfer of presidential power inevitable and raising the question of whether political leadership will pass to a new political party or whether the incumbent party can successfully transition to a new leader and retain power in the next election cycle. It is this constitutional reality, and the political uncertainty that follows it, that would begin to shape Zambia’s multiparty political history. **Zambia's Republican presidents and the two-term dilemma** | President | Party | Term milestone | How it ended | |---|---|---|---| | Frederick Chiluba | MMD | First to complete two terms under the 1991 Constitution | Reached the Article 35 term limit | | Levy Mwanawasa | MMD | Elected 2001; re-elected 2006 | Died in office, 19 August 2008 | | Rupiah Banda | MMD | Won 2008 by-election