SADC’s Electoral Commissions Forum elections observers mission in Zambia extends its mandate to August 19

* As election results tallying process is on-going having observed some operational and logistical challenges

* Including delay in delivery and inadequacy of materials which will be elaborated in its preliminary statement

By Duncan Mlanjira

The observer mission of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, the Electoral Commissions Forum (ECF-SADC) mandated to oversee Zambia’s 2026 general election, has extended it mission to August 19 since election results tallying process is on-going.

In a statement, the ECF-SADC — led by Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chairperson, Justice Annabel Mtalimanja — states that their mission was originally scheduled to close on Sunday, August 16, but given the current circumstances in that country, they thus extended their stay.

“During this period, the Mission will observe the results tallying process, provide peer support to the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ), and work with other international observer missions that have the mandate to undertake preventive diplomacy.”

Mtalimanja added that the ECF-SADC will scale down to eight members including herself as leader of the observer mission “to continue assessing the immediate post-election environment and determine its readiness to release a more detailed preliminary statement”.

“The Mission calls on all electoral stakeholders to exercise restraint and address all grievances through the legally established mechanisms as the ECZ continues to announce the election results.

“The Mission calls on the ECZ to provide regular and detailed updates to the public during this period,” said Mtalimanja, adding that the presence of regional actors in the country, is contributing to “confidence building”.

In its preliminary assessment, Mtalimanja reports that the ECF-SADC mission had 40 observers drawn from 11 member electoral commissions, which deployed teams to five of the 10 provinces of Zambia — Lusaka, Southern, Central, Eastern and Copperbelt.

She reports that the ECZ on issued a press release on Friday, August 14, “to suspend the counting and tallying of election results throughout the country for 24 hours, due to security situation, continued threats of violence targeted at poll staff and in some instances which resulted in the theft of marked ballot papers”.

“Section 67 (3) of the Electoral Process Act No 35 of 2016 was the basis of the ECZ’s decision to suspend,” says Mtalimanja. “This suspension was later lifted in a follow-up press briefing on the same day.”

Whilst the Mission continues to observe the immediate post-election environment in liaison with other international observation missions in the country; the Mission resolved as follows:

* Election day procedures generally proceeded well, with no reports of widespread intimidation, or significant disruptions to polling, but the ECF-SADC mission,however, observed some operational and logistical challenges — including delay in delivery and inadequacy of materials which will be elaborated in its preliminary statement. The preliminary statement will also cover the ECF-SADC mission’s assessment of the pre-election environment; and

* The ECF-SADC as a Peer-to-Peer Mission to ECZ plays a crucial role in supporting its Member Commissions at critical moments in the delivery of their mandate. The ECZ is at such a critical moment, and this informs a change of approach to the Mission’s deployment in Zambia.

The ECF-SADC is an independent regional association of Election Management Bodies (EMBs) established in July 1998 to promote professional, credible, and democratic electoral governance within the region.

The Forum provides a platform through which EMBs cooperate, share experiences and best practices, and contribute to the strengthening of electoral democracy across the region.

In this regard, the Forum deploys election observation missions that have a mandate to assess electoral processes and to provide peer-to-peer support to its Member Commissions during elections in the region.