950 ballot papers, 928 voters, and no answers: Tayali's own witness stumbles in the Ndola Central petition

The witness was supposed to help the petitioner's case. By the end of her cross-examination on Monday, she had become the story of its difficulties. Carol Namushi — an Electoral Commission of Zambia presiding officer called to testify by petitioner Frank Tayali in the Ndola Central election petition — gave the High Court two conflicting accounts of the alleged disturbance at the polling stream she ran, and could not account for her ballot papers.

Namushi, who told the court she has been a teacher for 19 years, was the presiding officer for the stream at the Ntubashushi polling station at Chibolele Combined School — the stream where Tayali's petition alleges violence disrupted voting. Under cross-examination by counsel for First Respondent Emmanuel Mulenga, she first said people rushed into the polling station after gunshots were fired; later in her testimony, she said people rushed in first, and it took a gunshot fired by soldiers to disperse them. She confirmed she made no report of the alleged incident to either the ECZ or the Zambia Police, and that no arrests were made. She had been appointed on 12 August 2026 and trained shortly before the election; some of her difficulties, she said, came from inadequate training.

Then came the arithmetic. Her stream, she said, was supplied with 950 ballot papers against 928 registered voters — but pressed for the actual figures, she could not clearly tell the court how many people voted, how many ballots were rejected, or how many papers remained unused. Ballot reconciliation — accounting for every paper issued and its final status — is the most basic audit of a polling stream. The court intervened as she struggled, cautioning her to answer the questions put to her and to address the court properly.

The petition itself remains live. Tayali, the former Minister of Transport and Logistics who held Ndola Central for the UPND, is challenging the declared victory of the Resolute Party's Emmanuel Mulenga — 11,659 votes to 10,840, a margin of 819 — alleging illegal practices, misconduct, intimidation and violence. The ECZ's filed answer is that no malpractice, violence or assault was reported to it during polling, counting or declaration; that results were properly transmitted and verified; and that a temporary suspension at the totalling centre was an administrative directive linked to violence elsewhere in the country, issued after voting had concluded. The GEN 20 form and procedural records are before the court. Monday's testimony will be weighed with the rest — but a petitioner's case is rarely strengthened when his own witness needs the judge's protection from her own answers.

Sources: Lusaka Times, "Tayali's witness gives two conflicting account of Chibolele polling station disturbance" (5 Oct 2026); Zambian Observer, "ECZ presiding officer gives conflicting accounts as ballot accountability questions emerge in Ndola Central petition" (5 Oct 2026); Crown TV on Tayali's own testimony (2 Oct 2026).