Zambians went to the polls to elect a president on August 12, 2021—they needed to re-elect the incumbent or choose a new one, along with new 156-member parliament (an additional 10 members are nominated by the president for a total of 166). Sixteen presidential candidates took part in the polls. The results reported by the Elections Council of Zambia (ECZ) show that the two leading presidential candidates, Hakainde Hichilema (HH), of the United Party for National Development (UPND) and Edgar Chagwa Lungu (ECL) of the Patriotic Front (PF) received 98% of the 4.

On August 12, 2021, Zambians reprised, what we must by now consider settled habit—they elected a new government. They have made a custom of changing governments with a certain directness and dispatch to the process: no self-doubt, no longing regretful glance back over the shoulder, no breakup tears, no hint or hedge leaving the door open for a future reunion in the curt goodbye. They did so for the first time in 1964 when the Zambian flag; amber, black, red, and green replaced the Union Jack and unfurled atop flag poles across the newly independent country of Zambia; again in 1991 when they said goodbye to the first Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda; and again in 2011 when they bid farewell to the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy and, once more, in the latest iteration, when they said enough to the Patriotic Front (PF) and choose the United Party for National Development (UPND) to manage their affairs.