{"id":46260,"date":"2026-09-23T13:23:29","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T11:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=46260"},"modified":"2026-09-23T13:23:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T11:23:29","slug":"zambias-ruling-party-proposal-could-extend-president-hichilemas-tenure-beyond-2031","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/zambias-ruling-party-proposal-could-extend-president-hichilemas-tenure-beyond-2031\/","title":{"rendered":"Zambia&#8217;s ruling party proposal could extend President Hichilema&#8217;s tenure beyond 2031 \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Zambia\u2019s ruling United Party for National Development officials have sparked debate by advocating for constitutional amendments to eliminate presidential term limits in the National Assembly.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Under Zambia\u2019s current constitution, Presidents are restricted to serving a maximum of two five-year terms. President Hakainde Hichilema is slated to complete his tenure in 2031, but proposed constitutional revisions put forward by party members would allow incumbent leaders to seek re-election indefinitely if supported by voters.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Reporting on the proposal, Correspondent Daniel Elisha Banda noted that supporters within the ruling party frame the move as necessary to ensure continuity of economic development programs. However, the initiative faces scrutiny from civil society groups and legal observers who warn that altering executive limits undermines democratic safeguards.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":42985,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-46260","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Zambia's  UPND proposes constitutional changes to allow unlimited presidential terms ","published_date":"2026-09-23 13:23:04","news_description":"Zambia's  UPND proposes constitutional changes to allow unlimited presidential terms ","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/46260","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\/46260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46261,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/46260\/revisions\/46261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=46260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}