Zambia's incumbent President Hakainde Hichilema is among 14 candidates who have so far filed nominations for the August general elections in that country. 

The nominations are, however, still ongoing and are expected to close by the end of this week.

Hichilema has also paid the equivalent of N$100 000 in nomination fees, just like the rest of the 26 candidates that have applied and paid to stand as republican presidents this year.

However, Hichilema's payment is a collective contribution of K1 coins from students and small-scale miners as a token of appreciation for what they termed 'good policies and free education', among others.

His party, the United Party for National Development (UPND), has also fielded over two hundred National Assembly and over a thousand local government candidates countrywide for the same elections.

Even before the general elections, eight candidates at the National Assembly level and about a dozen from his party have been declared winners after being unopposed at the close of the nominations.

Official campaigns started on Saturday and will run for the next three months until the polling day of 13 August as enshrined in the Zambian constitution.

The outright winner needs to garner a minimum of 50% plus one vote from the total ballots cast to avoid a rerun since Zambia transitioned from the first-past-the-post presidential election system in 2015.

Of the over 22 million Zambians, over 8 million have registered to vote this year as compared to about 5 million in the previous elections of 2021.

This is Hichilema's first five-year term in office.
Constitutionally, each candidate can only serve two five-year terms.