Peter Sinkamba has filed a petition at Zambia’s Constitutional Court challenging the Electoral Commission of Zambia’s decision to require adoption certificates signed by both the president and secretary general of a sponsoring political party as a condition for candidates contesting the August 13, 2026 general elections.
Sinkamba’s petition argues that ECZ does not have the constitutional authority to impose this dual-signature requirement on candidates seeking to contest elective office. The challenge targets a specific provision within ECZ’s nomination framework that requires aspiring parliamentary, mayoral, council chairperson, and councillor candidates to present adoption certificates bearing signatures from two senior party officials before their nominations can be accepted as valid.
The petition goes to the heart of a wider legal and political controversy that has consumed Zambia’s pre-election period. Multiple opposition political leaders, civil society organisations, and legal practitioners have raised concern that the requirement creates an administrative barrier that party leaderships could weaponise to block internal rivals from accessing the ballot. If a party president or secretary general withholds a signature, a candidate who has won internal party support could still be disqualified at the nomination stage before voters have any say.
ECZ has defended the requirement as a legitimate mechanism for ensuring that candidates presenting themselves under a party banner carry genuine institutional endorsement from that party’s leadership.
The commission has consistently maintained that the provision strengthens electoral integrity and prevents unauthorised use of party symbols and identities by candidates acting outside their party’s formal structures.
Sinkamba’s ConCourt petition is now the most direct judicial test of ECZ’s authority to impose conditions on candidacy beyond those already prescribed in Zambia’s constitution.
The Constitutional Court will need to determine whether ECZ’s nomination requirements are compatible with constitutional provisions governing the right to stand for election. A ruling against ECZ could invalidate nomination requirements already being applied across the country with the August 13 election date approaching.
That’s all they know!These politicians awe mwe..
With all the confusion going on in PF surrogates, the ECZ is very correct to demand Nomination Certificates. We don’t want that confusion spreading on to the national platform. It should remain there at “party” or alliance level.