Nominations day tomorrow: Mandevu and Lumezi pick their candidates as the ECZ opens the road to the 5 November by-elections

The first ballot papers of the post-election season start moving tomorrow. The Electoral Commission of Zambia will conduct nominations on Thursday, 8 October, for the by-elections it has set for Thursday, 5 November: the Mandevu and Lumezi parliamentary seats, the Mbala mayoralty, and eleven council wards spread across Luapula, Muchinga, North-Western, Western and Southern provinces. Campaigning opens on Saturday, 10 October, and closes on 4 November.

The vacancies are a study in how mandates fail. According to ECZ corporate affairs manager Henry Kasaro, the fourteen contests arose variously from the deaths of nominated and elected candidates, seats left uncontested during the 13 August general election, and nominations nullified by the Local Government Elections Tribunal. The ward map runs from Lungwishi in Mansa to Simanwa in Choma: Makaba and Nkonge in Chipili; Nachikufu in Mpika; Lubaleshi in Kanchibiya; Maako in Kasempa; Siluwe and Upangoma in Kalabo; Mfunda in Sioma; Mulimambango in Sesheke.

On the ground, the commission's week has been about temperature control. In Kasempa, District Electoral Officer Beston Kajoba has urged residents to keep the peace through nominations; in Mpika, his counterpart Samuel Musenge has pressed aspiring candidates and their supporters to comply with the electoral calendar and the law. In Lumezi, the commission convened a stakeholders' meeting ahead of Thursday, walking parties through their roles in what will be the constituency's second parliamentary by-election in eighteen months.

The contests matter beyond their boundaries. They are the first electoral test of any kind since the disputed August general election — a small but real sample of whether the machinery of voting, agent accreditation and results management can run without incident in the current climate. They also land in a crowded civic week: a day after nominations, President Hichilema opens the First Session of the 14th National Assembly. Fourteen small ballots and one big address will share the country's attention between now and Friday — and November will keep the receipts.

Sources: Times of Zambia, "ECZ sets Nov 5 for by-elections in Mandevu, others" (26 Sep 2026); Electoral Commission of Zambia statements on nominations and stakeholder engagements (Oct 2026); Lusaka Times on the Kasempa and Mpika electoral officers' appeals (5 Oct 2026); Kanele FM/Breeze FM on the Lumezi stakeholders' meeting (7 Oct 2026).