New Voters Roll Favours PF

The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) last week released an update on the provisional register of voters. While physical inspection of the register is not expected to kick off until March 29th a number of concerns regarding the new roll have already been shared.

One of the major concerns is that at 7,002,393 the new roll is almost 2 million short of the 9 million targeted during the registration exercise conducted in late 2020. At the time of the exercise civil society had pleaded with the ECZ to allow more time for citizens to register, particularly in light of the lengthy delays at the beginning of the process and the fact that the entire country had to register anew, with the old register to be completely scrapped. 

A closer look at the disaggregated data has also revealed the scale of the threat the new roll poses to the prospects for free and fair elections as it appears that registration numbers are significantly higher in PF strongholds as compared with elsewhere. 

During the registration process there were allegations regarding deliberate efforts to skew the register to support the PF’s chances of re-election in the 2021 polls. The figures released last week suggest these allegations require urgent attention. 

Academic Dr Sishuwa Sishuwa is among those to have examined the data and has warned the upcoming “election is a scam.” He is calling for an independent audit as an urgent and necessary requirement to save the integrity of the upcoming polls. 

Setting out his analysis on Twitter @ssishuwa shared a comparison of Zambia’s 2021 and 2016 voter registers to show that “the number of voters has been inflated in provinces likely to vote for the ruling party and reduced in opposition strongholds.” 

For example, in 2016 Southern Province had 810,077 registered voters. In the provisional register the number has reduced to 778,099 (-31,978). 

North-Western Province had 400,575 registered voters in 2016, which has been reduced to 384,453 (-16,122). 

And Western Province had 498,915 voters in 2016 but has recorded 447,143 in the provisional register (-51,772). All three areas are considered traditional opposition strongholds.  

Meanwhile, Lungu’s stronghold of Eastern Province has recorded an unparalleled increase of +120,324 voters having risen from 775,889 to 896,213. Other PF strongholds have also recorded increases with Northern increasing by +43,634, Luapula by +51,763 and Muchinga +52,311. 

“It is important to pressurise the Electoral Commission to subject the new Voters’ Register to an independent audit. Registers are the elections!” Sishuwa writes in light of his findings.