Why 43 election monitors figure in HRW’s Zambia crackdown report
LUSAKA — Forty-three election monitors who could have testified in a challenge to President Hakainde Hichilema’s re-election spent 21 days in custody without charge, according to Human Rights Watch. A court found their arrest unjustified and ordered their release. Their case is central to the rights group’s call for Zambia to investigate how police and soldiers treated opposition supporters, lawyers and journalists around the 13 August general election.
The monitors were arrested after opposition leader Brian Mundubile announced plans to contest the result in court. The government accused him of plotting an insurgency. From 24 to 28 August, authorities suspended judicial services and cordoned off court premises, preventing legal challenges to the presidential result during that period, HRW said. Police described the closures as a preventive measure based on intelligence but gave no further details.
A mathematician hired to check the count
One account in the report comes from a 44-year-old Lusaka mathematician hired to tally results for a possible election petition. He told researchers that armed men identifying themselves as police and intelligence officers entered his home on 15 August, demanded access to his laptop and phone, and asked who was financing the challenge. HRW reviewed the application his lawyer later filed in the Lusaka High Court challenging his detention. Police eventually charged him with a minor offence and released him that day.
Drawing on interviews and court records, HRW documented 14 apparent enforced disappearances and 61 cases in which detainees, relatives or lawyers reported beatings or other violence during arrest or detention. It also identified 71 cases involving potentially politically motivated charges or prolonged detention without charge. The court ruling on the 43 monitors was specific to their arrests. The wider allegations are findings from HRW’s research.
HRW has asked the Zambian authorities to release anyone still arbitrarily detained, give detainees access to lawyers and medical care, and investigate the conduct of the security forces. For those preparing election challenges, the disruption extended beyond the time spent in custody. Seven people, including lawyers and a journalist, told researchers they had left their homes because they feared arrest.
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