Electoral amendments changes irk Mushimba, Lubinda
By Adrian Mwanza and George Zulu
THE last-minute changes by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) on amendments to the electoral process are causing serious hysteria among opposition political parties, says Organised Peoples Party president Brian Mushimba.
And former Patriotic Front (PF) acting president Given Lubinda has described the conduct of ECZ as a recipe for anarchy ahead of the elections.
Speaking in separate interviews, Dr Mushimba and Lubinda urged the commission to put Zambia first.
“These last-minute changes to several matters have created a climate of hysteria among the opposition. It is shocking that the ECZ is making last-minute changes when the elections were just a few weeks away. It is worrying that these changes are coming within a short time frame when the country is expected to hold its general elections in a few weeks,” Dr Mushimba said.
He said changes to the Electoral Process Act needed to be done a few years before the general elections to give the public and stakeholders ample time to scrutinise and understand the process.
Dr Mushimba said what was happening was frightening and a threat to the country’s democracy, peace, security and unity.
“ECZ was just doing things at the last minute, leaving aspiring candidates in limbo. What I can say is that most opposition leaders are concerned with the manner in which ECZ is doing things, in the manner they are making announcements weeks before the general elections. Why didn’t they do these things a year before the elections? These are the things that are causing hysteria among the opposition,” he said.
Dr Mushimba said he was hopeful that he would successfully file his nominations today.
And former Patriotic Front (PF) acting president Given Lubinda has described the conduct of ECZ as a recipe for anarchy ahead of the elections.
He said the conduct of ECZ was unholy and a joke.
“What is happening around the elections of 2026 is an incident where the ECZ keeps prevaricating on the dates. They come up with a schedule. Before that schedule is implemented, they change it. You remember that they had set dates for the pre-processing of nominations. Then they changed it. And then again, they set a date for filing in of nominations, and again they have changed it. And now we are even being told that the announcement for the successful filing of nominations for presidential candidates will be made not on the spot, but after a week,” he said.
Lubinda said the conduct of ECZ was unprecedented and required an explanation.
“Is it that the ECZ officers are incompetent? That they can’t come up with a schedule and stick to it? Do they have to be changing dates while the schedule is running? Now the election programme has become very unpredictable. No one can be sure that the dates that they have set will be abided by,” he said.
Lubinda.
