COURT HEARS MAPATIZYA PETITION
The Livingstone High Court has heard that the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) proceeded to declare a winner in the closely contested Mapatizya Parliamentary election despite results from 10 polling stations being missing.
The court heard that the missing results followed violence that erupted at Kabanga Secondary School, which was the verification and totalling centre.
This is in a matter in which independent candidate Clive Darius Miyanda has petitioned the High Court challenging the outcome of the August 13, 2026 Mapatizya Parliamentary election, in which the Electoral Commission of Zambia declared United Party for National Development (UPND) candidate Emeldah Munashabantu winner with 14,812 votes.
Official results announced by the ECZ show that Miyanda polled 14,330 votes.
Miyanda disputes the official tally, telling the court that figures verified by his campaign team from Gen 20 forms for all 74 polling stations show that he obtained 18,359 votes.
He has further told the court that, according to his analysis of the results announced by the ECZ, the ECZ allegedly attributed some figures in which he had obtained more votes than Munashabantu to her, while the ECZ announced her results as his.
Miyanda has also argued that some of the results which the ECZ has described as missing are among the results from the 64 polling stations that the ECZ eventually announced.
During the proceedings, Mapatizya Returning Officer Newton Mudenda testified that violence erupted at Kabanga Secondary School shortly after polling ended, forcing the verification and totalling exercise to move to Zimba Secondary School.
He told the court that during the movement of election materials to Zimba Secondary School, some ballot boxes fell from the convoy and officials could not immediately account for them.
Mudenda testified that, although officials later recovered some of the ballot boxes, they could not account for results from 10 polling stations.
He told the court that they could not find the documents despite searching for them for several hours.
The Returning Officer said he subsequently sought guidance from the District Electoral Officer, Lubinda Mwala, who advised him to consult stakeholders on the way forward.
Mudenda testified that stakeholders agreed that they should declare results from 64 polling stations, excluding the results from the 10 polling stations whose results they could not account for.
And during cross-examination by the petitioner’s lawyer, Chazai Zulu, Mudenda could not produce evidence showing that he had personally reported the violence to police, although he acknowledged receiving information that someone had made a report.
Munashabantu is the first respondent in the petition, while the ECZ is the second respondent.
The court will communicate the date for judgment to the lawyers representing the parties between October 5 and 19, 2026.
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