DPP ACCUSES ECZ OF IMPOSING ‘EXTRA-CONSTITUTIONAL’ NOMINATION RULES IN PRESIDENTIAL ELIGIBILITY DISPUTE.
Lusaka – Wednesday, 22 April 2026
The Development People’s Party (DPP) has charged that the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) requirements for presidential candidate nominations impose unconstitutional conditions.
In a letter authorised by party president Dr Kafula Mubanga and addressed to ECZ, the DPP contend that the ECZ’s current practice requiring at least 100 supporters per province to be physically present or verified within those provinces has no basis in the Constitution.
At the centre of the dispute is the interpretation of Article 100(1)(j), which states that a presidential candidate must be “supported by at least one hundred registered voters from each Province.”
The DPP argues that the key term “from” refers to a voter’s origin, not their physical location at the time of nomination.
And Dr Mubanga said the the word ‘from’ denotes provenance, not presence adding that requiring supporters to be physically located in specific provinces amounts to an “extra-constitutional hurdle”.
He has maintained that the National Registration Card (NRC) is the definitive legal proof of a voter’s provincial origin.
Dr Mubanga said under Zambia’s registration system, NRC numbers indicate an individual’s province of origin, regardless of where they currently reside.
“If a voter’s NRC shows origin in Northern Province, that legal identity does not change simply because the individual is in Lusaka,” he said.
The DPP leader has also accused the ECZ of administrative overreach stating that the requirement infringes on constitutional rights, including freedom of movement, and effectively introduces new qualifications for presidential candidates.
He argues that voter registration status is national in scope and should not be tied to physical presence in a province during the nomination process.
Dr Mubanga has since called the ECZ to revise its verification procedures and recognise NRCs as sufficient proof of provincial origin without requiring supporters to be physically mobilised in their respective regions.
He said the Constitution is the supreme law of the land adding that any administrative guideline that narrows candidate rights beyond Article 100(1)(j) is void.