MUTOTWE KAFWAYA CALLS FOR INDEPENDENT AUDIT OF SOUTHERN PROVINCE POPULATION FIGURES
…as the Lunte MP Warns of Election Discrepancies ahead of 2026 elections
Friday March 14, 2025 (SmartEagles)
LUNTE Member of Parliament Hon Mutotwe Kafwaya has called for an independent audit of the population figures in Southern Province so as to bring credibility to the statistics.
Hon Kafwaya states that if the nation is to go into an election with the current figures marred with discrepancies, there is a high risk of having serious problems with regards to numbers coming from Southern Province.
Speaking at a press briefing today, he said the government must find time and money to reconcile the figures before the elections to avoid problems with figures.
And Hon Kafwaya has observed that the recent ministerial statement on the 2022 census report, presented by Minister of Finance and National Planning Dr. Situmbeko Musokotwane, includes information on provinces and their trends that is inconsistent.
“In some provinces, Dr Musokotwane provided the figures showing the movement from 2010 to 2022 but he deliberately omitted the figures in other provinces such as Luapula, Muchinga and Northern but only pronounced percentages,” he said.
Hon Kafwaya says what is even more worrying is that Dr Musokotwane completely omitted Southern Province in his ministerial statement and said nothing about it.
He has wondered how the Minister of Finance and National Planning can produce a ministerial statement talking about national statistics of the population yet he only talked about nine provinces leaving out Southern Province.
“You even know that it is in Southern Province where the 15 wards that brought controversy between the Civil Service Commission Chairperson Choolwe Beyani and ZAMSTATS are from yet he completely omitted it,” Hon Kafwaya said.
He says if the statistics of the 15 wards are contested by someone who has nothing to do with the census, then it is a sign that there is a problem in Southern Province in terms of figures of the population and the voters register.
The Lunte lawmaker has also questioned the suspicious circumstances in which the said population report recently uploaded on the ZAMSTATS portal has been withdrawn.
Hon Kafwaya says people are now aware that there is a problem which may also lead to a serious problem in 2026 hence the current government has identified the constitution as an escape route through proposed amendments.
Meanwhile, the Lunte MP has questioned the ambition by the Electoral Commission of Zambia –ECZ which is aiming to register at least 10 million voters.
“The numbers will not allow. Let them read the census report and they will know that it is impossible to have 10 million registered voters because that figure is slightly more than 50 percent of the population of Zambia which is predominantly populated by people who are not of the voting age,” Hon Kafwaya said.