One-party state

In February 1972, Zambia became a one-party state, and all other political parties were banned. Kenneth Kaunda, the sole candidate, was elected president in the 1973 elections. Elections also were held for the National Assembly. Only UNIP members were permitted to run, but these seats were sharply contested. President Kaunda's mandate was renewed in December 1978 and October 1983 in a "yes" or "no" vote on his candidacy. In the 1983 election, more than 60% of those registered participated and gave President Kaunda a 93% "yes" vote.

1991: Move to a multiparty state

Growing opposition to UNIP's monopoly on power led to the rise in 1990 of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD). The MMD assembled an increasingly impressive group of important Zambians, including prominent UNIP defectors and labour leaders. During the year, President Kaunda agreed to a referendum on the one-party state but, in the face of continued opposition, dropped the referendum and signed a constitutional amendment making Zambia a multi-party state. Zambia's first multi-party elections for parliament and the presidency since the 1960s were held on 31 October 1991. MMD candidate Frederick Chiluba resoundingly carried the presidential election over Kenneth Kaunda with 76% of the vote.^[8] To add to the MMD landslide, in the parliamentary elections the MMD won 125 of the 150 elected seats and UNIP the remaining 25. However, UNIP swept the Eastern Province, gathering 19 of its seats there.

1991–2001: MMD and Frederick Chiluba

By the end of Chiluba's first term as president (1996), the MMD's commitment to political reform had faded in the face of re-election demands. A number of prominent supporters founded opposing parties. Relying on the MMD's overwhelming majority in parliament, President Chiluba in May 1996 pushed through constitutional amendments that eliminated former President Kaunda and other prominent opposition leaders from the 1996 presidential elections.

In the presidential and parliamentary elections held in November 1996, Chiluba was re-elected, and the MMD won 131 of the 150 seats in the National Assembly. Kaunda's UNIP party boycotted the parliamentary polls to protest the exclusion of its leader from the presidential race, alleging in addition that the outcome of the election had been predetermined due to a faulty voter registration exercise. Despite the UNIP boycott, the elections took place peacefully, and five presidential and more than 600 parliamentary candidates from 11 parties participated. Afterward, however, several opposition parties and non-governmental organisations declared the elections neither free nor fair. As President Chiluba began his second term in 1997, the opposition continued to reject the results of the election amid international efforts to encourage the MMD and the opposition to resolve their differences through dialogue.

Early in 2001, supporters of President Chiluba mounted a campaign to amend the constitution to enable Chiluba to seek a third term of office. Civil society, opposition parties, and many members of the ruling party complimented widespread popular opposition to exert sufficient pressure on Chiluba to force him to back away from any attempt at a third term.

Presidential, parliamentary, and local government elections were held on 27 December 2001. Eleven parties contested the elections. The elections encountered numerous administrative problems. Opposition parties alleged that serious irregularities occurred. Nevertheless, MMD presidential candidate Levy Mwanawasa was declared the victor by a narrow margin, and he was sworn into office on 2 January 2002. Three parties submitted petitions to the High Court, challenging the presidential election results. The courts decided that there had been irregularities but that they were not serious enough to have affected the overall result, thus the election result was upheld. Opposition parties won a majority of parliamentary seats in the December, 2001 election, but subsequent by-elections gave the ruling MMD a slim majority in Parliament.

2001–2008

In the 2006 presidential election was hotly contested, with Mwanawasa being re-elected by a clear margin over principal challengers Michael Sata of the Patriotic Front and Hakainde Hichilema of the United Party for National Development (UPND).

The parliamentary election that same year awarded MMD with 72 seats, the remaining 84 seats split among other parties with the majority of those seats going to the Patriotic Front.

The presidency of Levy Mwanawasa until his death in office in mid-2008, was different from the flamboyant expenditure and increasingly apparent corruption of the later years of Frederick Chiluba's terms in office. Indeed, the former president was arrested and charged with several counts of embezzlement and corruption, firmly quashing initial fears that President Mwanawasa would turn a blind eye to the allegations of his predecessor's improprieties.

Mwanawasa was accused by some observers of demonstrating an authoritarian streak in early 2004 when his Minister of Home Affairs issued a deportation order to a British citizen and long-time Zambian resident Roy Clarke, who had published a series of satirical attacks on the president in the independent Post newspaper. However, when Clarke appealed to the High Court against the order, the judge ruled that the order was arbitrary and unjustified and quashed the order. President Mwanawasa, true to his mantra of heading a government of laws, respected the court decision and Clarke was allowed to resume his column of satirical critique. Mwanawasa's early zeal to root out corruption also waned somewhat, with key witnesses in the Chiluba trial leaving the country. The Constitutional Review Commission set up by Mwanawasa also hit some turbulence, with arguments as to where its findings should be submitted leading to suspicions that he has been trying to manipulate the outcome. Generally, the Zambian electorate viewed Mwanawasa's rule as a great improvement over Chiluba's.

Following Mwanawasa's death in August 2008, Zambian vice-president Rupiah Banda succeeded him to the office of president, to be held as a temporary position until the emergency election on 30 October 2008. Banda won by a narrow margin over opposition leader Michael Sata, to complete the remainder of Mwanawasa's term.

2011 elections

Rupiah Banda failed to be re-elected in the 2011 Presidential and Parliamentary elections, losing to Michael Sata of the Patriotic Front. This brought an end to a total of 20 years' rule by three presidents from the MMD.

2015–present

Edgar Chagwa Lungu was sworn in as president of Zambia on 25 January 2015, succeeding acting-president Guy Scott who briefly held the office after the passing of Michael Chiluyfa Sata. Lungu's presidency has thus far been criticised for failing to halt the depreciating Kwacha. There have also been unsubstantiated reports of Lungu's alleged alcoholism, stemming from a reported physical collapse early in his presidency.^[9] The economic challenges facing Zambia, in particular the depreciating Kwacha, have been attributed to the global fall of commodity prices. Zambia derives over 90% of its export earnings from a single commodity, copper, which has lost about 45% of its value on the international commodity market.

On 5 January 2016, Lungu successfully concluded long-standing constitutional issues when he assented to the 2015 Constitutional Amendment Bill. This bill is the result of extensive work begun during the Mwanawasa era (The Mwanakatwe Commission) and continued by the Michael Chilufya Sata appointed Technical Committee. As justice minister, Lungu had previously presented the draft constitution to parliament, where it was subsequently decided that non-contentious issues will be debated in parliament and contentious issues will be subject to a referendum. In the August 2016 Zambian general election, President Edgar Lungu won re-election narrowly in the first round of the election. The opposition had allegations of fraud and the governing Patriotic Front (PF) rejected the allegations made by opposition UPND party.^[10] However, in 2020 the Parliament through the office of the justice minister (Given Lubinda) proposed a bill called Bill 10, which was rejected in Parliament on its third reading.

In the 2021 general elections, characterised by a 70% voter turnout, Hakainde Hichilema won 59% of the vote, with his closest rival, incumbent president Edgar Chagwa Lungu, receiving 39% of the vote.^[11] On 16 August Edgar Lungu conceded in a TV statement, sending a letter and congratulating president-elect Hakainde Hichilema.^[12][13] On 24 August 2021, Hakainde Hichilema was sworn in as the new President of Zambia.^[14]

Presidential elections

Parliamentary elections

The election in Kaumbwe constituency did not take place on 12 August due to the death of the UPND candidate and was postponed until 21 October 2021.^[16]

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	United Party for National Development	2,230,324	46.22	82	+24
	Patriotic Front	1,722,718	35.70	60	–20
	Socialist Party	61,325	1.27	0	New
	Democratic Party	50,886	1.05	0	0
	People's Alliance for Change	20,227	0.42	0	0
	Party of National Unity and Progress	13,178	0.27	1	+1
	United National Independence Party	12,742	0.26	0	0
	Forum for Democracy and Development	4,006	0.08	0	–1
	National Democratic Congress	3,807	0.08	0	New
	Movement for Multi-Party Democracy	3,665	0.08	0	–3
	Leadership Movement	3,585	0.07	0	New
	Christian Democratic Party	3,471	0.07	0	New
	New Heritage Party	1,762	0.04	0	0
	Golden Party Zambia	858	0.02	0	New
	National Restoration Party	664	0.01	0	0
	Zambians United for Sustainable Development	554	0.01	0	New
	Green Party of Zambia	499	0.01	0	0
	United Prosperous and Peaceful Zambia	309	0.01	0	New
	Movement for Democratic Change	306	0.01	0	New
	Patriots for Economic Progress	232	0.00	0	New
	Economic Freedom Fighters	104	0.00	0	0
	Independents	690,418	14.31	13	–1
Appointed and ex-officio				11	–
Total		4,825,640	100.00	167	0
Valid votes		4,825,640	97.74
Invalid/blank votes		111,726	2.26
Total votes		4,937,366	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		7,023,499	70.30
Source: ECZ, ECZ, ECZ (Kaumbwe const.)

Participation in international organisations

Zambia is a member of ACP, AfDB, COMESA, ECA, FAO, G-19, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ITU, MONUC, NAM, OAU, OPCW, PCA, SADC, UN, UNAMSIL, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIK, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO and the WTO.