A WAKE-UP CALL ON THE VOTERS’ REGISTER AND THE ROAD TO 2026
By Ephraim Shakafuswa
This is a wake-up call.
The numerical work presented by Muhabi Lungu, titled “Numerical Trend Analysis Never Lie—ECZ’s Failed Target of 10.3 Million Voters’ Register – Request for an External Audit,” cannot be ignored, softened, or buried under public-relations language.
The figures are drawn directly from data published by the Electoral Commission of Zambia itself. They expose hard, uncomfortable facts: abnormal growth patterns, sharp and uneven provincial shifts, and a last-minute registration surge that defies Zambia’s historical, demographic, and electoral norms.
This is not political noise.
It is numerical evidence.
And the evidence is loud.
The Strategic Reality No One Can Dodge
This register has already altered the election before a single ballot is cast.
• The 2026 election will not be won using 2021 strategies. Any political actor still relying on old voter distributions is planning for a country that no longer exists on paper.
• Urban-first, Lusaka-centric strategies are now structurally weaker. Visibility, media presence, and noise do not compensate for lost proportional weight.
Blunt Truth
A candidate who wins Southern and Western Provinces convincingly now enters Lusaka and the Copperbelt from a position of strength, not desperation.
That was not true in 2021.
It is true now — and ignoring it is electoral self-sabotage.
Winners and Losers — Whether We Like It or Not
As the register stands today, the structural winners are clear:
• Provinces and political interests aligned to Southern Province, now carrying increased national weight.
• Western Province, whose new voter registration far outpaces historical norms.
• Political forces with deep rural reach, traditional authority links, and ground-level organisation — where the new voters actually are.
And the losers are just as clear:
• Urban-heavy, Lusaka-dependent strategies built on outdated assumptions.
• Provinces with stagnant or severely underperforming new registrations, including Muchinga, Northern, Luapula, and parts of Central
These are not opinions. They are the mechanical consequences of the published register.
The Bottom Line
At this stage, the ECZ register is no longer just a technical document. It is a political force multiplier.
Whether intentional or not:
• It reshaped provincial power.
• It rewarded some blocs.
• It diluted others.
Without an external audit, every serious political strategy must proceed on one hard assumption:
These numbers are the battlefield.
What a way to say Nothing surely sometimes it’s better to keep quiet.
What was the author of the article talking about no point.
Right now the government is encouraging people to register and be sponsored for any skill available in colleges and even universities and some people are feeling lazy. In future when the government will say every company must only employ people with a skills paper even cleaners, you fools again you will cry that how come it’s only people from southern province getting employed.
Voter registration was countrywide and some fools didn’t go and register but you want the register from those regions to have many people? You are a fool by writing up this nonsense. Encourage your people to participate in national programs not just making noise on media and complaining nonsense. Have you not noticed that people from these two regions you mentioned(Southern and western) don’t make noise or complain too much but ACT? Anyway, am sure by the end of HH rule Zambia will be one with one mindset, one love , one people, one family. Learn and learn fast.
Comparative analyses province by province are missing. The narrative is therefore incorrect. This fellow should be arrested for being an alarmist. There is no grain of truth in the write-up. It must be treated with the codempt it deserves.