Blessing Ivan Vava

The Thursday Briefing: Democracy in Code: How Digital Power Is Reshaping Sovereignty in Africa (Reflections on Zambia's 2026 general elections). By Dr Blessing Vava During the past month in Zambia, in the run-up to the country's 13 August general elections, I watched democracy unfold not only at rallies, campaign meetings and polling stations, but also on the screens of ordinary citizens. A young voter in Lusaka could move from a WhatsApp conversation about the election to a Facebook campaign video, then to TikTok commentary, before checking a candidate's position on an issue. A Yango driver could follow campaign developments between trips, while a small-business owner in Kitwe could receive political messages while processing mobile-money payments on Airtel. On election day, citizens followed results, rumours and competing claims through their phones long before the official count had concluded. Zambia's 2026 election, contested by fourteen presidential candidates alongside hundreds of parliamentary and local-government candidates, was fought not only through rallies, posters, television and radio, but across increasingly important digital spaces. This was not accidental. It reflected a broader transformation in democracy itself. Elections, constitutions, parliaments, political parties and courts remain essential. But democratic life is now also mediated through smartphones, social platforms, algorithms, digital identities and artificial intelligence. The question is no longer simply whether technology can strengthen democracy. It is who controls and governs the technologies through which democratic participation increasingly takes place —ba question at the heart of geosociotechnopolitics. From the Ballot Box to the Digital Public Sphere: Zambia’s New Electoral Architecture For much of Africa's post-independence history, political communication was relatively centralised. Governments, newspapers, radio, and television were the principal gatekeepers of information. My time in Zambia made these fundamental changes visible. Campaign messages moved constantly between physical and digital spaces: a rally generated content for Facebook; a television interview became a TikTok clip; a speech circulated through WhatsApp groups within minutes. Citizens were not simply consuming political messages; they were recording, remixing, and redistributing them. Traditional broadcast media played a vital role in bridging this physical-digital divide. Established houses — the public broadcaster ZNBC alongside private networks such as Diamond TV, Muvi TV, Prime TV, and QTV — extended their reach well beyond television sets by live-streaming debates, breaking news, and interview clips on YouTube, Facebook, and X. Citizens inside and outside Zambia followed events as they unfolded. In this sense, the gatekeepers of the broadcast era were not displaced by digital platforms so much as absorbed into them. The 2026 electoral field —spanning from the governing UPND to the NRPUP, Socialist Party, Citizens First, and smaller parties — depended heavily on this expanded digital architecture. Political leaders actively shaped, and were sometimes trapped by, it. President Hakainde Hichilema’s camp and the UPND used digital platforms to communicate policy, project continuity, and mobilise younger voters while bypassing traditional media. Opposition figures such as Brian Mundubile of the NRPUP adopted similar strategies to communicate directly with voters. Yet the same platforms that expanded political communication also amplified volatility. This was starkly demonstrated when Mundubile claimed victory through online channels before the Electoral Commission of Zambia completed its official tally, accelerating competing claims of legitimacy and placing immense pressure on electoral institutions. This volatility was compounded by the rapid circulation of unverified claims and synthetic disinformation. Read full article: blevava.blogspot.com/2026/08…