Editor’s note: This claim was made by the speaker and has not been independently verified.

Mundubile demands answers on Kopulande’s whereabouts, cites 34 detained in Mongu as K7.3m in campaign funds seized NRPUP presidential candidate Brian Mundubile has demanded that police clarify the whereabouts of senior alliance member Sebastian Kopulande, who he said went missing…

Mundubile demands answers on Kopulande’s whereabouts, cites 34 detained in Mongu as K7.3m in campaign funds seized

NRPUP presidential candidate Brian Mundubile has demanded that police clarify the whereabouts of senior alliance member Sebastian Kopulande, who he said went missing on Monday night in circumstances he likened to the earlier disappearance of Martha Lungu Mwitumwa, as concern mounts over a string of arrests involving people connected to his campaign just two days before the vote.

Addressing the nation alongside spokesperson George Chisanga, Mundubile said three senior figures in the Tonse-Pamodzi Alliance could not be accounted for by colleagues as of Monday night. He said Deputy Secretary-General Kenneth Kamba had also been detained the previous month, with police citing only “ongoing investigations.”

He listed several other people connected to his campaign who he said had been arrested or detained in recent weeks, including musicians Chester Mopawa and Felix, comedian Winston Ngosa, known as IDC, and bloggers Rooney Kapya and Matthew Zubi, alongside members of his security detail.

Mundubile said the detentions extended well beyond those individually named, telling reporters that 34 members of his party’s security team remained held in police cells in Mongu, with particular concern over members of his security and voter-protection structures in Western Province.

“Since when did music, comedy and journalism become crimes?” Mundubile asked, arguing that none of those detained had been shown to have committed any offence connected to the campaign work they were carrying out.

Mundubile named a further group of individuals he said were linked to his party’s election-monitoring structures, including Nonde Mubanga, Chisanga, Kasonde Mwenda, Enoch Roosevelt Tonga, Jonas Zimba, Japheth Mwakalombe, Kopulande, Davis Chisopa and Mutu Twekafwaya, saying all had been assigned roles connected to the National Results Centre or constituency-level monitoring.

He said the pattern of arrests suggested a deliberate effort to weaken his party’s capacity to monitor the vote count, rather than a series of unrelated law-enforcement actions. “UPND has made it a mission to try and arrest all these individuals under frivolous charges so as to paralyse our election monitoring unit,” he said.

The scale of the disruption came into sharper focus when Chisanga, responding to questions from journalists, said the total sum seized from his Lusaka law chambers the previous day amounted to K7,398,500. Of that, he said, about K5.5 million had been earmarked for polling agents and election monitors countrywide, with the remainder set aside for final rallies in Mazabuka, Livingstone and Choma. He confirmed he was among those required to report to the Drug Enforcement Commission at 14:00 hours the same day, alongside Mwakalombe and others.

Mundubile called on the Inspector General of Police to confirm publicly whether Kopulande was in custody and, if so, to ensure his family and lawyers were informed of his whereabouts and the charges against him, extending the same demand to the 34 people he said were being held in Mongu. He appealed separately to international observers and diplomatic missions to document the incidents as part of their assessment of the election.

He thanked the Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops for speaking out against political violence and intimidation, and appealed to civil society organisations, women’s groups and media bodies to treat the alleged detentions as a matter of principle rather than partisan loyalty.

Mundubile also referred to unverified reports that armed individuals from outside Zambia’s borders had been seen near his party’s offices, a claim he did not substantiate with further detail, and said he would not be intimidated from continuing his campaign.

He urged his own supporters to remain peaceful, avoid retaliation and stay at polling stations after voting to observe the count, while challenging President Hakainde Hichilema to publicly instruct security agencies to remain neutral in the final hours before polling.

On ballot-marking, Mundubile insisted voters should use a cross rather than any other mark, contradicting the Electoral Commission of Zambia’s recent clarification that a tick or dash may also be valid provided a voter’s intention is clear.

Asked by a journalist from Power FM whether he was prepared to accept the outcome of Thursday’s election, Mundubile did not directly answer the question, instead expressing confidence in the result before votes had been cast. “We are winning this election. Don’t even bother yourself to say that. That’s a simple answer. You know that very well. Every Zambian knows that,” he said.

Pressed further on the pressure his campaign was under, Mundubile turned to his Christian faith, telling the journalist he should “walk away very happy” rather than fearful. “Zambia is not Tanzania. Zambia is a Christian nation. Zambian Christians right now are fasting. They are on their knees. And Lord Almighty will show that He reigns supreme,” he said, adding that at the mention of the name of Jesus, “every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”