Zambians cast ballots in a presidential election that tests incumbent's economic reforms

LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) — Vote counting got underway Thursday evening in Zambia after polls closed in a closely watched presidential election that tests whether President Hakainde Hichilema’s economic reforms were enough to overcome widespread frustration over the cost of living.

About 8 million people in the southern African country of 22 million were registered to vote at more than 13,500 polling stations in the one-day election. Voters were also choosing members of Parliament and local government councilors. The Electoral Commission of Zambia said results were expected Monday.

Voters bundled in thick jackets had queued in long lines before dawn outside polling stations across Lusaka, some huddling around makeshift fires as election officials prepared for voting.

European Union observers monitored voting at one polling station in Lusaka. Separately, a local election observer said poor voter direction, confusion over voter rolls and crowd management issues caused delays and frustration at some polling stations.

Mathias Ngoma, in his 70s, said he has voted in every election he could because “it’s the only voice I have.”

“I braved the cold to choose leaders I am hoping will make things better in our constituency,” he said.

The election is widely seen as a referendum on Hichilema' s handling of the economy. Elected in 2021, he is seeking a second term after restructuring Zambia’s massive foreign debt, stabilizing the economy and attracting investment.

Hichilema, one of 14 candidates, cast his ballot shortly after midday in Lusaka’s Kabulonga suburb. He described the election as a choice between continuing his government’s reforms or reversing course.

“This election is really about the people of Zambia and their future — progress as opposed to regression,” he told reporters.

Brian Mundubile, considered by analysts to be the strongest opposition candidate, cast his vote in the Olympia area. He assured Zambians that their “second independence” was imminent and encouraged them to cast their ballots peacefully.

Mundubile, who leads an alliance of opposition parties, has campaigned on promises to lower the cost of living, improve agriculture and restore democratic freedoms while accusing Hichilema’s government of undermining democratic institutions.

“This is a revolution,” he said after voting. “The will of the Zambian people will certainly prevail in this election.”

Many Zambians say they don’t feel the benefits of recent economic growth as unemployment, food prices and an unstable electricity supply continue to strain household budgets.

Meki Mulota, 40, an entrepreneur, said she wanted better conditions for entrepreneurs.

“The cost of living has been high,” she said. “I want to see a government that will create an environment where entrepreneurs can sustain their businesses.”

Christopher Banda said he backed Hichilema because he believed the country was on the right track.

“I’m voting for stability,” he said. “There’s been a high cost of living ... but I think we’re heading in the right trajectory.”

A presidential candidate must win more than 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff.

The election is being closely watched abroad because Zambia is a major producer of copper and is seeking to sharply increase production of the metal, which is critical to electric vehicles, renewable energy and power grids.

China is Zambia’s largest foreign investor and has extensive mining interests in the country, while the United States has sought a greater role as Washington seeks to diversify its critical-mineral suppliers and reduce its reliance on China.

Hichilema has courted investment from both China and Western partners, including the U.S., as he seeks to increase annual copper production to 3 million metric tons by 2031.

Security and political tensions rose in the final days of the campaign. Police deployed additional officers and warned against violence, disruptions at polling stations, and the circulation of false results.

Opposition parties and rights groups, including Amnesty International, accused Hichilema’s government of shrinking democratic space and using state institutions to target critics and political rivals, allegations the government rejects.

Hichilema spent four months in jail on treason charges as an opposition leader under former President Edgar Lungu, whom he defeated in 2021.

Lungu remained an influential political figure until his death in South Africa last year. A prolonged dispute between his family and the government over his funeral and burial added to tensions ahead of the election.

Zambia is regarded as one of southern Africa’s more stable democracies, with a history of peaceful transfers of power. Hichilema’s 2021 victory marked the country’s third transfer of power to an opposition candidate since multiparty democracy returned in 1991.

AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

Zambia's President Hakainde Hichilema shares a light moment with journalists after casting his vote at a polling station in Lusaka, Zambia, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Anita Reed)

People queue up outside a polling station during a presidential election in Lusaka, Zambia, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Anita Reed)

Zambians cast their vote at a polling station during a presidential election in Lusaka, Zambia, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Anita Reed)

A man is seen in a voting booth at a polling station during a presidential election in Lusaka, Zambia, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Anita Reed)

People queue up outside a polling station during a presidential election in Lusaka, Zambia, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Anita Reed)

A woman is seen in a voting booth at a polling station in Lusaka, Zambia, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Anita Reed)

Zambians queue outside a polling station on the outskirts of Lusaka, Zambia, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Anita Reed)

Zambians queue outside a polling station on the outskirts of Lusaka, Zambia, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Anita Reed)

Zambians queue outside a polling station on the outskirts of Lusaka, Zambia, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Anita Reed)

Supporters of Zambian incumbent President and United Party for National Development (UPND) presidential candidate Hakainde Hichilema campaign on the street in Lusaka, Zambia, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Anita Reed)

Supporters of Zambian incumbent President and United Party for National Development (UPND) presidential candidate Hakainde Hichilema attend a campaign rally on the outskirts of Lusaka, Zambia, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Anita Reed)

As a child, Rebeca Quiñonez-Piñón wondered where monarch butterflies stop for a meal and a night's rest on their long migrations across North America. Now she and other scientists are attaching tiny tracking devices to hundreds of butterflies to find those critical stopover locations before they disappear.

Swarms of dazzling orange-and-black monarchs use environmental cues to travel some 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) from as far as southern Canada to spend the winter in forests of oyamel fir trees in central Mexico, a protected biosphere reserve that's also a World Heritage site.

For decades, however, scientists have struggled to build a clear picture of the butterflies' routes, how far they fly each day and where they settle at night. Solar-powered radio tags attached to nearly 1,750 monarchs this year are helping provide answers.

As habitat loss, pesticides and climate change pummel monarch populations, the research could help their numbers rebound. Quiñonez-Piñón said the uniquely famous monarch butterfly helps draw attention to the threats facing insects and their vital role in sustaining plant life across the continent.

“Pollinators are crucial to protect and ensure that our ecosystems remain healthy,” she said, “and also to have the sources of food that we require as humans.”

The public can follow the progress of individual butterflies on the free app called Project Monarch Science.

Quiñonez-Piñón is the senior scientist at the National Wildlife Federation, a nonprofit that recently joined a tri-national science team to track monarchs. She’s leading a study that mixes real-time migratory tracking with community science to better understand where they stop in Texas.

Only some monarchs migrate. Of the ones that do, a big portion of the butterflies east of the Rocky Mountains fly through a narrow corridor known as the “Texas funnel” every fall and spring, when they head north again to lay their eggs before dying.

But depending on the year, they might favor different parts of the Lone Star State, based on where they can find water, nectar and overnight shelters like trees. It’s a detail that has fascinated scientists, including Quiñonez-Piñón.

Since the tracking started last year, scientists have found the first evidence of a butterfly in Utah, west of the Rockies, joining eastern monarchs in central Mexico. Others migrated down the Eastern Seaboard to Florida, jumped the Gulf of Mexico and are now tracking across Mexico, a connection scientists hadn’t seen before in such numbers.

“There’s just all these unique stories of their paths, connections between the population, that we didn’t know existed or we hypothesized but couldn’t prove,” said Emma Pelton, senior conservation biologist with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.

“We’re a year into it, and I think we’re all just thrilled,” she said, especially since older tracking devices proved too big or heavy.

Since their migration started this year, about 175 tagged butterflies have been detected in Mexico.

The new $200 tags weigh about as much as a drop of water and were developed by Cellular Tracking Technologies. If the person attaching the tag is properly trained and puts it on correctly, Quiñonez-Piñón said, “the monarch will be completely safe.”

Not all monarchs are good contenders for the tags. To ensure they’re not overburdened, most of the butterflies that get a tag weigh more than 400 milligrams (about as much as a standard pill), said David La Puma, vice president of global market development for Cellular Tracking Technologies and coordinator of the Project Monarch Collaboration, the team the National Wildlife Federation recently joined. Other researchers and community scientists look for longer-winged monarchs to tag.

Many monarchs are caught with nets and kept in cool temperatures to calm them before they're tagged, which requires delicacy and care. The insect is positioned in the middle of a special board, its legs and antennae protected, where adhesive is cotton-swabbed onto its abdomen and the tag. Then the transmitter is gently pressed to its body and the butterfly is eventually released.

Louie Yang, an insect ecologist at the University of California, Davis, said the technology is “pretty remarkable” because “we haven’t previously been able to see what path they take or how quickly they’re moving over different parts of that journey.”

But there are also limitations. The technology doesn't tell us a butterfly's exact location, he said, but rather where there was a receiver that detected it. And just because a butterfly was detected doesn't mean it's still alive.

Yang also said further studies will be needed to understand how and if the tags impact butterfly behavior.

Monarchs typically live two to six weeks, but the butterflies that migrate to Mexico can live up to nine months and spend their lives moving south, waiting out the winter and migrating north again before breeding in the spring. The monarch’s feat has made it a symbol for the rights of international migrants.

Since the mid-1990s, the population of eastern monarchs has dropped more than 80%, and in the west by about 95%. Pesticides are a pervasive threat to milkweed, the plant where monarchs lay their eggs and the exclusive food source for its caterpillars.

Human-caused climate change — driven by burning coal, oil and gas — is also a primary threat year-round, said Tierra Curry, senior scientist and endangered species codirector with the Center for Biological Diversity.

“One of the problems now is that it stays too hot too long in the northern areas, and so they don’t get the cues to migrate. And then if the temperature freezes, they’re probably not going to make it to Mexico,” she said. “The later they start, the less the chances that they’re going to get all the way to the forest.”

Prolonged drought can dry up the water and nectar flower sources they need. They get hit by cars and trucks. And out in California, forests where western monarchs fly for the winter are being razed for development.

Late last year, the Trump administration delayed a decision on federal protections for monarchs. Several groups filed a lawsuit, and a court ordered the government to make a final decision by 2030.

However, conservationists are pushing ahead with new ways to protect the dwindling monarch population.

In Texas, nets on some highways are encouraging butterflies to fly higher so they don't get smashed, especially at night when they fly down to roost. Other efforts involve mass plantings of milkweed and pollinator plants in gardens, along roadsides and transportation corridors, Curry said. Several studies show they're boosting local populations.

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

FILE - Monarch butterflies rest on their way to Mexico, Sept. 12, 2023, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)