The burial that became a campaign: Lungu's legacy shadows the race

Archive note: Lusaka Brief launched in September 2026. This entry was added retrospectively so the record of a significant national moment is preserved. It is based on reporting and official statements that were publicly available at the time.

More than a year after his death in June 2025, former president Edgar Chagwa Lungu remains at the centre of Zambian politics — this time through a dispute between his family and the government over where and how he should be buried.

The disagreement, which has simmered since his death, was thrust onto the campaign trail when Tonse Alliance candidate Brian Mundubile told a rally in Chinsali that he and running mate Makebi Zulu would give Lungu a dignified burial if elected.

State House pushed back within days, asking whether it had been Lungu's wish to be buried under a future Mundubile government — a sharp response that signalled how sensitive the issue has become for both camps.

The Tonse Alliance draws significant support from sections of the opposition associated with Lungu and the former Patriotic Front government, and the burial question has helped turn the 13 August poll into a contest not only over President Hichilema's economic record but over Lungu's political legacy. Civil society and church figures have appealed for the matter to be handled with dignity and kept out of point-scoring — an appeal both sides have endorsed in words, if not always in practice.