🇿🇲 ANALYSIS | Who Cleared Dolika Banda?
A troubling contradiction has emerged at the heart of Zambia’s electoral process.
Fresh court filings reveal that the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) received a communication from the Examinations Council of Zambia on May 21, 2026 advising that Socialist Party running mate Dolika Banda did not possess a Grade 12 certificate or its equivalent and recommending that her nomination be invalidated.
But Ms. Banda’s nomination was accepted.
Now the question confronting voters, lawyers, and election observers is simple: who cleared Dolika Banda?
Until recently, the debate focused largely on governance activist Isaac Mwanza’s petition seeking the disqualification of the M’membe-Banda ticket. Critics viewed the petition as politically motivated. Supporters argued it was about constitutional compliance. The latest disclosure shifts attention away from politics and towards the institutions responsible for administering elections.
Court documents filed by the ECZ show the Commission believes it acted lawfully. According to the Commission, both Dr. Fred M’membe and Ms. Banda submitted all required nomination documents, including academic qualifications that appeared to have been verified.
The Commission further argues that by the time the Examinations Council’s communication arrived, the nomination validation process had already been completed. Legally, it says, it had become functus officio and could no longer revisit the nomination.
The explanation may satisfy legal procedure. It does not resolve the confusion.
One public institution apparently accepted the qualification during the nomination process. Another later advised that the qualification did not meet constitutional requirements. Both institutions are central to the integrity of elections. Both cannot be right at the same time.
The chronology raises uncomfortable questions. If concerns existed about the qualification, when were they discovered? If the qualification failed to meet the constitutional threshold, why was the issue not resolved before nominations closed? If verification had already occurred, what prompted the later warning from the Examinations Council?
Those questions matter because presidential nominations are among the most scrutinised processes in any democracy.
Article 100 of the Constitution requires a presidential candidate to possess a Grade 12 certificate or its equivalent. The same standard applies to a running mate because Zambia’s presidential ticket is joint and inseparable. Mr. Mwanza’s petition argues that if Ms. Banda fails the constitutional test, the entire M’membe-Banda ticket falls with her.
The Constitutional Court will ultimately determine the legal question.
A broader governance question, however, is already emerging.
Election management is built on certainty. Citizens must know the rules. Candidates must know whether they qualify. Institutions must speak with clarity. Once conflicting messages begin emerging from agencies charged with protecting the electoral process, public confidence inevitably comes under pressure.
Supporters of the Socialist Party see an attempt to remove political competitors through litigation. Supporters of the petition see a constitutional matter requiring judicial intervention. Neutral observers are asking something different altogether: how did a dispute of this magnitude survive the nomination stage?
The answer matters.
An election commission does more than administer ballots. It safeguards confidence in the process itself. Every unresolved contradiction creates space for suspicion, speculation, and political narratives.
At the centre of the storm sits a single unanswered question. Who cleared Dolika Banda?
The Constitutional Court may determine whether her nomination stands. The public, however, deserves clarity on how Zambia’s electoral institutions arrived at such sharply different conclusions in the first place.
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