Dear Readers, Welcome to the 2026 edition of the CCMG News Bulletin. As Zambia moves closer to the 2026 General Election, this edition highlights CCMG’s continued commitment to strengthening electoral integrity through citizen election observation, stakeholder engagement, and advocacy. Over the past few months, CCMG has actively deployed observers for local by-elections, delimitation, voter registration observation and inspection.
Electoral boundary delimitation or the creation and realignment of electoral boundaries, establishes the electoral units used for representation. At its core, boundary delimitation creates the linkage between citizens and their elected representatives, establishing which representative voices the concerns and aspirations of citizens in representative bodies.
Long-Term Observation (LTO) of the pre-election period is essential for evaluating the integrity of the electoral process. Elections are complex events that unfold within a wider legal, political, and social framework. LTO is the systematic and continuous monitoring of the electoral environment before election day, focusing on legal frameworks, electoral administration, political conduct, voter participation, and security conditions to assess the overall integrity, inclusiveness, and credibility of the electoral process.
The Christian Churches Monitoring Group extends its appreciation to all individuals and organisations whose contributions made the observation and documentation of the 2025 Voter Registration exercise possible. CCMG is deeply grateful to all its 336 voter registration observers who were deployed across the country. Their commitment, professionalism, and resilience under challenging conditions were central to the collection of accurate, timely, and credible data that informed this report.
Zambia’s voter registration is guided by Article 229 (2) (c) of the Zambian Constitution, Section 7 of the Electoral Process Act (EPA) and the Electoral Process (Registration of Voters) Regulations. The Electoral Commission of Zambia rolled out the 2025 mobile mass voter registration in October 2025 to allow new voters to register and existing voters to update their details, with the aim to have a complete and current register. CCMG deployed monitors to a representative random sample of registration centres across all six phases to ensure that Zambia’s voter registration process upholds constitutional guarantees, adheres to the Electoral Process Act and Electoral Procress (Registration of Voters Regulations), aligns with international electoral standards, and promotes broad public confidence in the electoral process (see VII Methodology).
Voter registration is one of the most complex and most expensive activities within the framework of elections. The quality of this process and the product, that is, the register of voters, determines the outcome of an election and consequently the stability of democratic institutions in a country. The core purpose of voter registration is to guarantee that the voting age population (VAP) can register as voters, while prohibiting those ineligible from doing so. The International IDEA’s International Electoral Standards (2002) require that voter registers be maintained in a manner that is transparent and accurate, protects the rights of qualified citizens to register, and prevents the unlawful or fraudulent registration or removal of persons.
Since his election, the President on multiple occasions has made welcome remarks on the need for constitutional and legislative reforms, including electoral reforms. These include Presidential pronouncements at the first session of the 13th National Assembly in September 2021, during a subsequent meeting with the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) in March 2022, and in his address to the European Union Parliament in June 2022.
The Constitutional Court was asked to interpret Article 52(6) of the Constitution in relation to a parliamentary candidate who withdraws candidature between nomination and election dates. Two specific questions were asked, but before looking at the questions, it is important to set out Article 52(6) out. It states: 52(6) Where a candidate dies, resigns or becomes disqualified in accordance with Article 70, 100 or 153 or a court disqualifies a candidate for corruption or malpractice, after the close of nominations and before the election date, the Electoral Commission shall cancel the election and require the filing of fresh nominations by eligible candidates and elections shall be held within thirty days of the filing of the fresh nominations. The applicants asked the following two specific questions for interpretation by the Court
