Resolute Party's Dr. Martin Phiri Rules Out Petitioning Hichilema's Win

Dr Martin Phiri, who describes himself as Resolute Party President, has ruled out challenging President Hakainde Hichilema's re-election, calling any petition "counter productive" and urging other political players to accept the results so the country can move on, a position he delivered to media in Lusaka on Thursday morning. The statement arrives complicated by an unresolved internal party dispute over whether Phiri still speaks for the Resolute Party at all.

Phiri described the 13 August general election as free and fair and said the Resolute Party has accepted the outcome. "Petitioning President Hakainde Hichilema's election victory will be counter productive and we will not do that," he said, adding, "I urge other political players to accept the results so that the country can move on." He called on citizens to rally behind Hichilema, and said the party's focus going forward would be twofold: providing checks and balances to the UPND government, and rebuilding Resolute Party structures ahead of future elections.

A PARTY, OR A FACTION?

What the statement does not mention is that Phiri's standing within the Resolute Party has been openly contested since early August. The Resolute Party sits within the Tonse-Pamodzi Alliance that backed NRPUP's Brian Mundubile and running mate Makebi Zulu, a former Resolute Party figure himself, for this election. On 2 August, the party's interim President and Secretary General, Alex Katepu, issued a formal letter expelling Phiri "with immediate effect," accusing him of having "fundamentally betrayed the trust and confidence" of the party's membership and its Tonse-Pamodzi Alliance partners after Phiri publicly endorsed Hichilema's candidacy while campaigning was still under way. The party at the time reaffirmed its "unwavering support" for Mundubile and Zulu. Reporting at the time described the episode as a mutual expulsion, with Phiri and Katepu each attempting to remove the other from the party within 48 hours of one another, leaving Resolute Party's actual leadership in genuine dispute.

That contest followed months of visible strain inside the alliance. Phiri had separately accused Mundubile and Zulu of sidelining the Resolute Party during the candidate nomination process, saying an agreed arrangement for the party to field its own candidates in Copperbelt, Lusaka and Eastern provinces broke down, and that he only learned Zulu would run as Mundubile's vice-presidential candidate, rather than lead the Resolute Party's own ticket as he said had originally been planned, the night before nominations closed.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR THE STATEMENT

Given that history, Thursday's statement is better understood as the position of Dr Phiri and whatever wing of the Resolute Party remains aligned with him, rather than a confirmed, undisputed statement from the party as a whole. MUVI has not established which faction, if either, holds formal legal control of the Resolute Party's name and structures following the competing expulsion notices, and has sought comment from both Phiri and Katepu's office.

President Hichilema was declared re-elected on 18 August with roughly 60 percent of the vote. Mundubile, the Tonse-Pamodzi Alliance's actual presidential candidate and the party Phiri was expelled for breaking ranks with, has said the opposite of what Thursday's statement urges: he has rejected the results and confirmed his alliance intends to petition the Constitutional Court, a case MUVI has covered separately.