Socialist Party alleges plot by ruling party to rig future polls through implementation of electronic voting

The Socialist Party (SP) has called on the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) to secure stakeholder consensus before introducing electronic voting in the 2026.

Party Media Director, Brian Hapunda, expressed surprise that the ECZ was insisting on introducing electronic voting in the 2026 presidential and general election.

Hapundu in a statement issued in Lusaka on Monday stated that this was being done without engaging stakeholders in a country where only 35 percent of citizens were technologically savvy.

He warned that ECZ should exercise caution before introducing electronic voting considering that 65 percent of the citizens who were not digitally savvy would be disenfranchised

“As Socialist Party, we can only view this as panic and maneouvers by ECZ to rig the 2026 elections through electronic voting,” Hapunda said.

He also demanded that the government through the Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security, should clarify reports on why it secretly recruited an additional 1,000 police officers on top of the announced 3,000 to police the 2026 elections.

“This is a scheme that they want to use to intimidate the citizens in 2026 as they rig the elections but this scheme will not work because the people of Zambia have already made up their minds on who to vote for in 2026,” he claimed.

Hapundu said the scheme to intimidate citizens through the police would not work and further cautioned the United Party for National Development (UPND) that they cannot overcome the power of organised citizens in numbers.

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