ECZ A UPND PUPPET
…it can’t run a fair, free and transparent election – lawyer Zimba
By Adrian Mwanza
LUSAKA lawyer Jonas Zimba says the current Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) board cannot run a fair, free and transparent election.
In his public submission on the call for electoral reforms, Zimba says ECZ had created a self-perception that it was a tool for the ruling party deployed to exclude all competitors and disadvantage any opposition party from any form of participation in the electoral process in the country.
He says the partiality of the current ECZ can be seen from the various illegal notices and the proposed amendments to the Electoral Process Act 2026, which include a proposed amendment and the definition of what amounted to an adoption certificate.
“In our present times, the commission seems to think or is perceived to have an overreaching arm such that they can do anything they want insofar as they feel it is right,” he said.
Zimba said ECZ was perceived to be a regulator of political parties.
He said it was perceived to be a body that can decide who to associate with or not on behalf of political parties and leaders.
Zimba argues in his submission that the commission has nothing to do with regulating political parties or political players.
“Put simply, the vantage point that the commission has in the democracy of Zambia is that it is there to conduct elections, and it is an independent body. It assumes the role of a referee in Zambia’s electoral system,” he writes.
Zimba says going by the proposed laws that cover what the commission has set out as its functions, it has no power to regulate how political parties conduct their affairs.
“This, in short, is an illegality being perpetrated by a body mandated to preserve the democracy of this country,” he says.
Zimba said ECZ has shown bias in the manner in which they conducts itself in the last five years of the UPND in government.
Zimba cites the Kwacha and Kabushi parliamentary by-elections on The Copperbelt involving Joseph Malanji and Bowman Lusambo, where ECZ played along with the Executive to disadvantage other players and the people to vote for the person they wanted.
He says around January 30, 2026, Zambians raised concerns over an alleged letter suggesting that only documents signed by the secretary general and the president of a political party registered at the Registrar of Societies shall be accepted by the commission.
“On the very day this was issued, the commission quickly disowned it and stated that it was fake. In this time of cybercrimes and punitive cyber laws, no one has been prosecuted or even called in for investigations in relation to such a serious matter,” Zimba submits.
He says people could only imagine that the commission was testing the waters and upon seeing a public backlash, pulled back the notice with some interesting excuse that it was fake.
The functions of ECZ are both set out in the Constitution and an Act of Parliament.
“Article 229 of the Constitution sets out the functions of the commission and it states that ECZ shall implement the Electoral Process Act, conduct elections and referenda, register voters, settle minor electoral disputes as prescribed, regulate the conduct of voters and candidates, accredit observers and election agents, as prescribed, delimit electoral boundaries and preform such other functions as prescribed,” he says.
ECZ has begun the process of amending the Electoral Process Act to accommodate the implementation of the newly enacted Constitution of Zambian (Amendment) Act No 13 of 2025.
It has invited submissions from the public on the bill.
