Election Administration

All national and local elections and referenda are to be prepared, conducted and supervised by the Election Commission of Zambia (ECZ). As an autonomous body, it was established in accordance with the 1996 Constitution (Article 76). It is funded by parliamentary appropriations and donations. Its mandate includes the supervision of voter registration and the nomination of electoral candidates, the delimitation of constituencies and the overall responsibility to prepare for and conduct elections.

In accordance with the Electoral Commission Act (1996), the ECZ was first established just one month prior to polling day in 1996. The ECZ consists of a maximum five members, including the chairperson. Their renewable term of office is seven years. They can be dismissed only for insanity or bankruptcy, and only by the President. Three of the current members, including the chairperson, were appointed by the President on 3 August 2005. Their appointments were also subject to ratification by parliament. Election commissioner Kalala was appointed in 2003. The current ECZ is chaired by Mrs Irene Mambilima (a former judge of the Supreme Court). The other members are: Mrs Grace Mulapesi, Mr Joseph Jalasi and Mr Noah NK Kalala. Like the ECZ of 2001, two of the commissioners are women. The executive arm of the ECZ is its Directorate led by Dan Kalale, who is appointed by the ECZ. He served in this position during the 2001 elections. The Directorate has to manage the ECZ and implement the ECZ’s decisions.

Election offices are de facto in place in all 72 districts where district election officers are temporarily appointed. They are either town clerks or council secretaries (depending on the size of the district). In addition, one returning officer and one assistant returning officer are appointed to each constituency to handle the reception and transmission of election results to the ECZ. They also announce the preliminary election results for the respective constituency and various wards. For presidential elections, the Chief Justice (President of the Supreme Court) serves as returning officer.

For polling and counting, one presiding officer is assisted by four polling and counting assistants in each polling station. Polling station officials are mainly teachers. The total number of polling and counting officials will be approximately 50,000. In total, there are 6,456 polling districts. Some polling stations have up to 7,000 voters. In order to avoid long queues on election day, as occurred in the previous elections, a polling station can be set up in several ‘streams’, with one stream for up to 650 registered voters.

In order to enhance public confidence in the polling and counting process, the ECZ is printing all ballots in Durban, South Africa, and incorporating photographs of the presidential and parliamentary candidates on the coloured ballot papers. Another security measure is the introduction of filling in and transmitting the result protocols by optical mark reading (OMR). The records will be scanned in the district result centres and then forwarded to the National Result Centre of the ECZ.

In accordance with the Electoral Act, and in order to address efficiently electoral disputes, the ECZ established one National and 72 District Conflict Resolution Committees (CRC). The CRCs include representatives of political parties, candidates, governmental institutions and civil society representatives dealing explicitly with conflict resolution.

In preparation for the 2006 elections, the ECZ reviewed the constituent boundaries and delimitation of wards and polling districts. The number of wards has been increased from 5,510 to 6,456, and polling districts from 5,510 to 6,456. In order to accelerate the polling process, the ECZ also enlarged the number of voting ‘streams’ to 9,314 (compared with 5,510 for the 2001 elections).