SP ACCUSES ECZ OF POLITICAL SABOTAGE OVER VOTER REGISTRATION EXERCISE
Lusaka…. Wednesday October 22, 2025 – Socialist Party (SP) General Secretary Dr Cosmas Musumali has described the ongoing voter registration as “Political Sabotage.”
Dr. Musumali says his party is skeptical about the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) saying the party has on several occasions engaged the ECZ but nothing positive came through.
He said generally, the ECZ has failed the people of Zambia.
He said this when he and SP President Dr. Fred M’membe featured on Hot FM’s “SP Hour” radio programme.
“One key point is that Phase One of the mass voter registration exercise has come to an end and we are getting into Phase Two, so if you look at Lusaka, the entire Lusaka Province, only less than 10, 000 people have been registered. So Lusaka is at 9, 248 that is for the entire Lusaka during this exercise, that is unacceptable,” he said.
“And it’s not surprising because short quick visits in the centers showed that many people were unaware of what was going on. The issue of public awareness was very inadequate. In some areas also the issues we mentioned equipment, late coming, internet etc was a big problem. So Muchinga only registered 3, 990 during Phase One, Central has 5, 148 again it’s a big joke.”
He said this is an important matter and it cannot be ‘business as usual’.
He called for public pressure in order to change the status core.
And Dr. M’membe said things are not well, but they can be corrected if there is goodwill if there is no intention of excluding some of the people.
Dr. M’membe observed the need to change things in the remaining weeks emphasizing that the exercise is not going well as ECZ wants to predict.
“Yesterday we sent a letter to the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) Mrs. Mwangala Zaloumis. That letter arose from the conversation I had the night before. I received a call from my brother Mr Harry Kalaba, he raised concerns about the ongoing voter registration. How in certain provinces only 10, 000 NRCs are being issued. Ten thousand the entire province! After he raised concerns about his visit to Luapula and what he saw, we agreed that we send a joint letter to the ECZ,” he stated.
“So we drafted the letter and signed it, it was sent yesterday to Mrs. Zaloumis asking for a meeting with her. We didn’t raise any complaints there, we just said there are serious concerns we have, let’s meet and discuss this. And we told her that we are not writing on our behalf only, but also on some of our fellows in the opposition. We have not yet received the response, probably it’s too early. We hope we will get a feedback from her before the end of the week.”
Meanwhile, Dr. M’membe has expressed shock following an appeal by the ECZ for the opposition to help sensitize the people on the ongoing voter registration exercise.
He said the ECZ has never defended the rights of the opposition political parties in meeting the people.
“ECZ has realized there is an issue of voter registration sensitization now they are asking the opposition political parties to sensitize the people. How do we do it? There is a Public Order Act. Has ECZ ever defended our right to organize people and sensitize them? And sensitization can not only be in this one month or so, it takes time,” he stated.