The strangest way to win a seat is to watch the door close on an empty room. The UPND's Anderson Banda was declared duly elected Member of Parliament for Lumezi North yesterday after nominations closed with no challenger on the ballot — the National Reconciliation Party for Unity and Prosperity, the only party permitted to file a fresh nomination under Article 52(c) of the Constitution following the death of its candidate Clement Mwale before polling day, did not file by the close of business. The Leadership Movement's Nebby Manda and Banda, both validly nominated for the voided August poll, remained on the ballot by operation of law; with no NRPUP nominee and Manda's campaign in abeyance, the returning officer declared Banda elected unopposed. The UPND retains the seat, and the 5 November by-election calendar loses its quietest contest.
The NRPUP had signalled hesitation all month — party president Ezra Tembo said the by-elections were expensive and that the party was consulting on participation, though it prized the Lumezi North seat precisely because the vacancy arose from its own candidate's death. Consultation, in the end, became absence. The party's internal dispute over who speaks for the opposition — Tembo insists it is he, not Stephen Kampyongo — now has an electoral cost attached: a constituency it could have contested is simply gone.
Mandevu, by contrast, will be fought. Nominations there produced a genuine surprise: the Tonse Pamodzi alliance shifted its backing from Jean Kapata — the former MP whose adoption had been announced on Monday — to Daniel Chisenga, a former Lusaka mayor and councillor who contested the seat as an independent in August and filed yesterday on the ticket of the Forum for Democracy and Development, an alliance member. The ruling UPND's Adrian Banda, the former independent adopted only this week, filed his papers at Justin Kabwe and promised to deliver; the Leadership Movement's Ntazana Musukuma completed the field. Whether Kapata's withdrawal was a tactical retreat or an internal defeat is a question the alliance has not publicly answered.
The machinery now rolls on schedule. Campaigning opens tomorrow, Saturday 10 October, and closes at 18:00 on 4 November; polling is Thursday 5 November across Mandevu, the Mbala mayoralty — where the UPND's Felix Mulwanda is the man to beat — and eleven ward contests in five provinces. District electoral officers spent nomination day preaching peace to party structures, and the ECZ will publish certified candidate lists in the coming days. Fourteen ballots became thirteen yesterday; November's reading of the political temperature just lost its most predictable data point.
Confirmed vs. developing
Confirmed: Anderson Banda's unopposed election after the close of nominations (reported by Mwebantu from Lumezi); the Article 52(c) restriction to the NRPUP alone; the Adrian Banda, Chisenga and Musukuma filings in Mandevu; the campaign and polling dates (ECZ).
Developing: The certified candidate lists for all thirteen remaining contests; the circumstances of the Tonse Pamodzi switch from Kapata to Chisenga — earlier in the week the alliance had publicly retained Kapata, and the shift was confirmed only at the nomination desk; the NRPUP's formal explanation, which had not been issued by press time.
Sources: Mwebantu, "UPND's Anderson Banda Elected Unopposed in Lumezi North" (8 Oct 2026); Zambian Eye, "Tonse Pamodzi shifts from Jean Kapata to Daniel Chisenga" (9 Oct 2026); News Diggers on the UPND and Tonse Mandevu adoptions and the Article 52(c) procedure (8 Oct 2026); Zambian Observer on the NRPUP's consultation over participation (1 Oct 2026); ECZ notices on the 5 November by-elections (Sep–Oct 2026).
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