The Patriotic Front (PF) was formed as a political party on 21 September 2001. In 2000, after
Chiluba lost a bid to change the
constitution to allow him to stand for a third term, Michael Sata thought he would be endorsed as the MMD presidential candidate. The answer was given in 2001 when Chiluba noted that none of those (including Sata) who were in his government at the time were capable of winning the elections. At a
secret ballot, Chiluba personally nominated Mwanawasa and voted for him to be the presidential candidate. Angered by this turn of events, Sata quit the MMD and founded the PF. Sata became leader of the PF and was its presidential candidate for the
2001 general elections; he received 3.4% of the vote, finishing seventh out of the eleven candidates. In the
National Assembly elections the party received 2.8% of the vote, winning a single seat. Sata was again the party's presidential candidate in the
2006 general elections, this time finishing second to
Levy Patrick Mwanawasa with 29% of the vote. With its National Assembly vote share increasing to 23%, the party won 43 seats, becoming the largest opposition party. Following Mwanawasa's death, a
presidential by-election was held in 2008. Sata finished second to MMD candidate
Rupiah Banda with 38% of the vote to Banda's 40%. The
2011 general elections saw a reversal of the 2008 result, with Sata beating Banda by a margin of 42% to 35%. The PF also became the largest party in the National Assembly, winning 60 of the 150 seats. However, Sata died in office in October 2014. Vice-President
Guy Scott took over as
interim president until a
by-election was held in January 2015.
Edgar Lungu was selected as the party's candidate, and won the election with 48% of the vote.
Inonge Wina was appointed as the
Vice President of Zambia. At the
2016 general election, Edgar Lungu won again as the president with 50.35%, beating
Hakainde Hichilema by 100,530 votes or 2.72%. In the lead up to the 2021 general election, Amnesty International publicly raised concerns about the violation of civil liberties, crackdowns on dissent and police killings while the party held political power. At the
2021 general election, Edgar Lungu was once again the party's candidate. The PF came out second at that election, getting 1,870,780 votes while Hakainde Hichilema of the
UPND got 2,852,348 votes. The PF once again became the largest opposition party, winning 60 of the 156 parliamentary seats.
Factionalism Soon after the 2021 general election, Lungu decided to retire from active politics and the party's vice president,
Given Lubinda, became the acting president of the party going forward. Eight Patriotic Front members (excluding Lubinda) decided to stand for the position of party president, awaiting a party convention. Some members claimed that the Patriotic Front was taking too long to hold its party convention to choose the leader. In October 2023, there was a controversial extraordinary general conference that took place in which
Miles Sampa was declared the president of the Patriotic Front party. Lubinda and other members of the party argued that the convention that took place was illegal and was against the party's constitution, In the same month,
Edgar Lungu had announced his return to active politics and Lubinda subsequently gave Lungu back the position of party president for the faction while he would remain as the faction's vice-president. The high court lifted the
injunction on Sampa assuming his role as party president, which meant that the Patriotic Front would have two factions with Lungu as the president of one and Sampa as the president of the other. On 25 May 2024, the Lusaka High Court dismissed a case in which six of the PF presidential candidates challenged the election of Sampa as the PF president, declaring him as the party president until further notice. As the leader of one of the two factions of the PF, Lungu decided to join the United Kwacha Alliance (UKA), an alliance of opposition political parties in Zambia, in early 2024. In November 2024, Lungu's PF faction was invited to join the
Tonse Alliance and it accepted, with Lungu being appointed the alliance chairperson and being chosen as the presidential candidate for the alliance for the
2026 general election. Due to UKA not being in support of a political party belonging to more than one alliance, it was decided that Lungu and the PF were no-longer part of UKA. On 30 June 2024, Sampa decided to dismiss his secretary-general (SG), Morgan Ng'ona, from his SG position. Within a week, the court issued an ex-parte stay order which blocked Sampa's decision to dismiss Ng'ona as SG.) as the acting party president in July 2024, effectively creating a third faction within the Patriotic Front. This leadership dispute between Sampa and Chabinga was taken to court. On 1 May 2025, Sampa decided to reunite his Patriotic Front faction with the faction for Lungu, effectively stepping down from the party presidency. Lungu was handed back the party presidency and
Given Lubinda was handed back the party vice-presidency by Sampa. and once again, Lubinda became the acting president of this PF faction. Chabinga was still the acting president of the other faction and the matter of who is the rightful leader of the PF was still in court. In January 2026, due to state authorities recognizing Chabinga as the president of the Patriotic Front, the
Kabwe High Court issued an injunction which effectively banned the other faction led by Lubinda from doing activities in the name of the Patriotic Front. On 11 March 2026, the Patriotic Front faction with Lubinda as the acting president formed the PF Pamodzi Alliance and officially decided to exit from the
Tonse Alliance due to internal disagreements. On 15 March 2026, Lubinda announced that after many delays, his PF faction would host a convention to choose their new leader within four days. The convention took place virtually on 21 March 2026 and the delegates that were present elected
Makebi Zulu to be the president of the party faction with 49.2% of the vote, with
Chitalu Chilufya getting 34.1% of the vote.
Given Lubinda,
Chishimba Kambwili and
Chanda Katotobwe were also candidates. while a few politicians who also wanted to contest the PF presidency (
Willah Mudolo and
Miles Sampa) decided to stay away from this convention due to the injunction. Within the following week, secretary general Morgan Ng'ona reported Zulu and Lubinda among others to the Kabwe High Court for letting the convention happen contrary to the injunction. On 3 March 2026, the Lusaka High Court had dismissed the case in which Morgan Ng'ona challenged his expulsion from the PF by
Sampa, which meant that the appointment of Robert Chabinga as party president would have to be nullified. Due to this judgement, Sampa proceeded to recognize himself as the PF president once again and proceeded to declare a few changes within the party, == Electoral history ==