40 PR MPs sworn in as parliament widens — and watchdogs like what they see

Speaker of the National Assembly Nelly Mutti has sworn in the 40 members elected under the new proportional representation system — seats reserved for women, youth and persons with disabilities under the amended constitution — completing the most structurally different parliament Zambia has ever seated.

Student bodies and civil society organisations have welcomed the intake, calling it a long-overdue correction to a chamber that historically under-represented all three groups. The PR tier — 20 seats for women, 15 for youth and 5 for persons with disabilities — sits alongside 226 constituency MPs and presidential nominees.

The reform is not without its critics. The constitutional amendment that created the seats was contested all the way through 2025 and 2026, with opponents arguing the architecture was designed to advantage the incumbent party — an argument given ammunition by the UPND's dominant showing in August.

Both things can be true: the chamber is more representative, and the road to it was politically charged. The new MPs now carry the burden of proof — showing that reserved seats translate into real influence on budgets and bills rather than decorative diversity.