'Resist it': Laura Miti's third-term warning lands as Chapter One tells the President to say it plainly

The third-term question has moved from insinuation to open confrontation. On Thursday, human rights activist Laura Miti used a public interview to urge Zambians to resist any attempt to remove the presidential two-term limit — and by Friday, Chapter One Foundation had called on President Hakainde Hichilema to state his position on term limits plainly, arguing that only his own words can shut down a debate that members of his own party keep feeding.

Miti's intervention was the sharper. The constitutional changes enacted under Bill 7, she said, were designed to hand the ruling UPND the numbers it now enjoys in Parliament — a two-thirds majority assembled with nominated proportional-representation seats and independents. "Bill 7 was not for the people," she said. Proportional representation, she argued, had nothing to do with women or young people: "It was for numbers. It was to give the ruling party numbers." Women remain few in the House despite the reform, she noted, and nominated members belong to their parties: "Do you think they will ever go against the Government? No. Those are a sitting vote for the Government."

The calls for a third term, she said, are coming from the President's "cronies", and follow a pattern as old as Frederick Chiluba's failed bid more than two decades ago — scattered voices first, the campaign after. "Zambians do not accept a third term," she said. "But don't be surprised that it is being called for." To those now expressing alarm at what a two-thirds UPND majority could do, she turned the question around: "Why are you worried now? You should have been worried when Bill 7 was being fast-tracked and you were singing and saying, no, it's all right, it's for the youth. You are driving straight into a brick wall, and when impact hits, you say you are surprised. It was always going to be this way."

But she was careful to separate the President from the noise around him. Hichilema has previously stated he is not interested in a third term, and has said nothing since to suggest otherwise. "To be fair to President Hichilema, he hasn't said anything about this," she said. "The day we hear it straight from his mouth, the conversation becomes very different."

That is precisely the gap Chapter One Foundation wants closed. In a statement carried on Friday, the governance organisation called on Hichilema to make his position clear following remarks from within the ruling party. UPND proportional-representation MP Florence Chileshe Chama has openly advocated the President remaining in office beyond 2031. The party's deputy secretary general has described that as the MP's personal wish and said the party has not discussed the matter — but pointedly did not rule the proposal out. When senior actors leave different impressions, the Foundation argued, uncertainty grows, and a direct statement from the person at the centre of the discussion becomes necessary.

The constitutional position, for now, is not in dispute. Hichilema was sworn in on 1 September for a second and, under the current Constitution, final term running to 2031. Extending that would require a constitutional amendment bill — none has been tabled, and comments by individual MPs change no law. As one explainer from MUVI TV put it this week: what Zambia currently has is a political conversation. History shows such conversations can remain just that; it also shows why Zambians pay attention when they begin.

"We need the constitutional amendment. What we don't need is a third term." — Laura Miti

Miti's warning came with an economic coda. She praised the President's first-term work on the economy and social welfare as "brilliant" — then cautioned that third-term talk could undo it. "If the UPND allows this kind of distraction around politics to start today, they can be sure that whatever they succeed to do on the economy will drown again in a whole lot of noise, a whole lot of anxiety, a whole lot of tension." Her instruction to citizens was blunt: "Forget the party of who is in power and look at your own interest. If the UPND tries to change the Constitution, they should face real resistance from the people."

Sources: Lusaka Times, "Resist Any Third Term Push, Miti Tells Zambians" (24 Sep 2026); News Diggers, "HH should shut down the term-limit debate by stating his position" (25 Sep 2026); MUVI TV, "Why Is Zambia Talking About a Third Term Again?" (23 Sep 2026); Lusaka Times columns (Mushimba on term limits, 24 Sep 2026).