{"id":36019,"date":"2026-06-02T09:34:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T07:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=36019"},"modified":"2026-06-02T09:34:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T07:34:06","slug":"pep-battles-hurdles-in-zambias-election-race","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/pep-battles-hurdles-in-zambias-election-race\/","title":{"rendered":"PeP battles hurdles in Zambia&#8217;s election race"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">Controversy and confusion have rocked the 2026 Zambian election season as the Patriots for Economic Progress (PeP) party faces unprecedented hurdles in its bid to participate in the upcoming polls.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">At the centre of this political storm is Chanda Katotobwe, a former Patriotic Front (PF) Member of Parliament, now stepping into the national spotlight as PeP&#8217;s presidential candidate.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">Katotobwe, who once served as a Member of Parliament under the PF banner, is now leading the charge for PeP alongside his running mate, Sean Tembo, but their campaign has hit a major roadblock.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">The party alleges that unauthorized changes were made to its official records, reclassifying PeP as a church and altering key office bearers, moves that have effectively barred Katotobwe and hundreds of PeP candidates from filing their nominations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">&#8211;Channel Africa&#8211;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":23660,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-36019","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Zambian election season","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36020,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36019\/revisions\/36020"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=36019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}