The argument over whether President Hakainde Hichilema should be allowed to seek office after 2031 moved from radio studios to the steps of Parliament this week. On Tuesday 27 October a group calling itself the Zambia Youth Organisation Consortium presented a petition asking the National Assembly to abolish presidential term limits and to remove the Grade 12 certificate requirement for people seeking election as MPs and councillors, the Zambia Daily Mail reported on Wednesday. News Diggers reported that youth-led civil society organisations marched to Parliament to present it.
The consortium's chairperson, Jacob Longwe, argued that term limits restrict citizens' freedom to keep voting for the leaders they prefer and that the Grade 12 rule shuts out people with leadership qualities who lack the certificate. The Daily Mail names the member organisations as Youth for Dialogue, the Youth Development Network, Ambia Young Women, the Different Abled Youths Association and Arise and Soar Zambia, and says the group consulted around the country before drafting the petition. Neither report gives a number of signatures.
presidential term limits are not suitable in the current democratic dispensation
— Jacob Longwe, chairperson of the Zambia Youth Organisation Consortium, at Parliament on Tuesday 27 October, as reported by the Zambia Daily Mail
The petition was received by Francis Kope, a UPND nominated MP, who was accompanied by Itezhi-tezhi West MP Twaambo Mutinta and Kaumbwe MP Charles Tembo. Kope promised to personally start the process of getting it presented to the House, and the consortium asked for it to be taken up as a private member's motion. Mutinta said a motion would let MPs debate the issues before any decision was taken.
The reaction
Wynter Kabimba, the Economic Front leader, told Diamond TV's COSTA programme that the President should tell the people pushing to remove the term limit to "shut up", warning that the campaign would destroy him, News Diggers reported on Wednesday. He said he found it a pity that the debate had started barely two months after the UPND won an election; the rest of his remarks sit behind the paper's paywall.
The debate has been running inside the governing party since September. The Zambian Observer reported on 21 September that Florence Chama, a UPND proportional representation MP, had argued publicly that the President should remain in office beyond 2031, and that the Attorney-General, Mulilo Kabesha, had told Phoenix News that constitutional reform would follow lawful procedure and public participation and "will not be dictated by political commentary". On 6 October the Observer reported the UPND spokesperson, Cornelius Mweetwa, saying the party would not be held responsible for members calling for the limit to go, since they did not speak for it, and SACCORD's Arthur Muyunda warning that removing term limits would undermine the country's democratic gains.
Kabesha's most recent remarks are more open-ended. On the Zambia YMCA podcast, News Diggers reported on Monday 26 October, he said the government looked forward to possible constitutional amendments, that whether the term limit needed to go would be determined over time, and that if citizens demanded change the debate should not be suppressed. "Laws must be changing all the time, even if we claim or we like saying 'it should stand the test of time'," he said.
For now the position is this: the two-term limit stands in the Constitution, a petition to remove it has been handed to a governing-party MP who says he will bring it to the House, the party says the campaign is not its own, and the Attorney-General says the answer will come through the formal amendment process and the passage of time.
Sources: Zambia Daily Mail, “Youths petition Parley on presidential term limits” (28 Oct 2026); News Diggers, “Youths march to Parley demanding removal of presidential term limit” (28 Oct 2026); News Diggers, “Tell those pushing third-term agenda to shut up, Wynter urges HH” (28 Oct 2026); News Diggers, “Time will tell if presidential term limit needs to be removed – Attorney General” (26 Oct 2026); The Zambian Observer, “Kabesha says constitutional reform will follow law as UPND figures raise debate over presidential term limits” (21 Sep 2026); The Zambian Observer, “UPND Distances Itself From Calls to Remove Presidential Term Limit” (6 Oct 2026).