EDITORIAL | Sampa’s Apology Is Welcome, but Accountability Must Follow in an Election Year

🇿🇲 EDITORIAL | Sampa’s Apology Is Welcome, but Accountability Must Follow in an Election Year

Miles Sampa apologised yesterday to the Electoral Commission of Zambia over his claim that a fake polling station had been set up along Lilayi Road during the Chawama parliamentary by-election. He admitted that the allegation was based on incorrect information and accepted responsibility after ECZ officials and police clarified that the station was duly authorised. This apology matters. In an election climate already thick with suspicion, correcting the record is the bare minimum required of public leaders.

Context is important. The Chawama by-election was highly charged. Opposition figures had been warning of rigging long before a single ballot was cast. Social media became the main battlefield, where claims travelled faster than verification. In that environment, a sitting Member of Parliament publicly raising an unverified allegation was not a small slip. It fed fear, mistrust and confusion at a moment when electoral calm was essential.

Sampa’s explanation shows how quickly misinformation can escalate. A report from residents, a hurried verification through party channels, then a public statement. Only later did direct engagement with ECZ officials establish the facts. By then, the damage had already been done. Screenshots travel. Retractions rarely do.

The apology should therefore be welcomed, but it should not end the conversation. Accountability is not punishment for its own sake. It is a corrective tool. When influential political actors face no consequences for spreading falsehoods, others learn that there is little cost to recklessness. In an election year, that lesson is dangerous.

Social media has flattened authority. Everyone can publish. Everyone can accuse. This reality makes discipline more necessary, not less. Political leaders are not ordinary users. Their words carry weight. When they speak carelessly, institutions are weakened and voters lose confidence in the system meant to protect their voice.

This is not about silencing opposition or shielding the ECZ from scrutiny. Electoral bodies must always be questioned. But questioning must be evidence-based, proportionate and responsible. Raising alarm first and verifying later reverses the democratic order.

Zambia has just witnessed a peaceful by-election where the ruling party lost and accepted defeat. This outcome alone dismantles many rigging narratives. It also sets a higher standard for political conduct going forward. Leaders must match that standard.

Sampa did the right thing by apologising. The harder task now is for political parties to enforce internal discipline and for institutions to insist on responsibility. Without that, apologies will become routine, misinformation will remain profitable, and the next election will be noisier, angrier and less trusted.

Democracy does not collapse in one dramatic moment. It erodes through repeated small acts of irresponsibility that go unchecked. This apology should be a pause point. The country must decide whether truth still carries consequences.

© The People’s Brief | Editors