The ballot papers for Thursday's by-elections exist, and some of them are already obsolete. News Diggers reported on Sunday that the Electoral Commission of Zambia's chief electoral officer, Brown Kasaro, said the consignment arrived from Dubai at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport on Saturday 31 October. It had been expected on Friday, and when it did not come the commission sought an explanation from the printer and the airline. The consignment includes papers for Mandevu constituency bearing the names of candidates who have resigned from the race, because printing was completed before the resignations were communicated to the commission.
Those names are known. Zambia Monitor reported on Friday 30 October that the commission had received letters dated 28 October from Ntazana Musukuma Mutungwa of the Leadership Movement, Daniel Chisenga of the Forum for Democracy and Development and the independent Daniel Daka, each withdrawing with immediate effect. That left Adrian Banda of the UPND as the only validly nominated candidate, and Kasaro's public notice said Banda would be declared duly elected without a poll with effect from 5 November. The notice gave no reasons for the withdrawals and did not say whether the commission had received any formal complaint about the threats and intimidation that some of the candidates alleged.
Where people will actually vote
The commission scheduled 5 November last month for two parliamentary by-elections, Mandevu and Lumezi North, and twelve local government contests, eleven wards and the Mbala mayoralty. Most of them will not need a ballot box. Diggers reported that the UPND stands unopposed in both constituencies, in Mbala, and in five wards, Maako, Siluwe, Upangoma, Mulimambango and Simanvwa, where its candidate was the only one validly nominated. Speaking on Saturday at a training session for polling staff in Lwingishi ward in Mansa, commissioner Zevyanji Sinkala said six wards across five districts would go to the polls on Thursday and that training was under way.
The clause that ends a contest
The former justice minister Given Lubinda has turned the Mandevu outcome into an argument about the constitution. In remarks reported by the Zambian Observer on Sunday, he said the effect of the 2025 constitutional amendment known as Bill 7 was now visible: the amended Article 52(6) allows an election to proceed to a declaration when rival candidates withdraw. He called for a national review of the provision while still encouraging residents to vote. The same mechanism has left the UPND unopposed in Lumezi North, where Diggers reports the opponents also withdrew.
What is the value of an election if the people are left without a meaningful choice of representatives?
— Given Lubinda, former Minister of Justice and former acting president of the Patriotic Front, as reported by the Zambian Observer on Sunday 1 November
The governing side reads the withdrawals differently. On Friday, during the Vice-President's Question Time, Mutale Nalumango told MPs that the UPND could consider 2031 already won if opposition parties kept showing political indiscipline, and on Saturday the Citizens First president Harry Kalaba, in a statement reported by the Observer, agreed with her diagnosis, saying opposition leaders had put personal ambition ahead of the public and lacked the unity to offer an alternative government. The Observer also reported that the UPND Alliance, after meeting Nalumango at Government House, plans a nationwide tour to thank voters for August.
Sources: News Diggers, “ECZ receives ballot papers, says Mandevu candidates withdrew after printing” (1 Nov 2026); News Diggers, “ECZ to hold 6 local govt by-elections on Nov 5” (1 Nov 2026); Zambia Monitor, “Mandevu by-election called off. Here's why” (30 Oct 2026); Zambian Observer, “Fuel Prices Rise Again, Opposition Divided Over Mandevu as Khama Attacks Hichilema” (1 Nov 2026).