AFRICA: Edgar Lungu, Zambia’s ex-President, is dead
By BASHIR ADEFAKA with Agencies
The court previously ruled in Lungu’s favour when it heard the matter while he was still in power, but its composition has since changed after Hichilema removed three judges appointed by his predecessor.
Southern Africa nation of the Zambia has lost its immediate past President Edgar Lungu.
He died on Thursday June 5, 2025 at the age of 68, six months after his attempted return to active politics was thwarted by a court ruling. The court had said that he could not run for office again.
Lungu was the sixth president of the Zambia and held office from 2015 to 2021, when he lost an election to long-time opposition leader and current President Hakainde Hichilema.
The DEFENDER reports that a Zambian court had ruled that former President Edgar Lungu cannot stand in future elections for the nation’s top office, as he has already held it twice.
For that reason, Lungu is ineligible under the constitution “to participate in any future elections as a presidential candidate,” Constitutional Court Deputy President Arnold Shilimi said in a televised judgment on Tuesday.
“This decision provides legal clarity for citizens and safeguards our democracy, allowing us to look forward to free, fair and competitive elections in 2026,” Zambian Attorney General Mulilo Kabesha said in a separate statement.
Presidents in Zambia are only allowed to serve two terms. Lungu, 68, had argued he could run in 2026 because his first stint in power — from January 2015 until August 2016 — didn’t constitute a full term.
Lunga won the office after his predecessor, Michael Sata, died in 2014, and his tenure was therefore shortened.
Lungu was elected to a second term in a tightly contested election in 2016 and then lost power in 2021, when now-President Hakainde Hichilema defeated him by a landslide.
The court previously ruled in Lungu’s favour when it heard the matter while he was still in power, but its composition has since changed after Hichilema removed three judges appointed by his predecessor.
