🇿🇲 BRIEFING | Tonse Alliance Defies ECZ Advisory, Says Mundubile Campaign Will Proceed as Planned
Zambia’s election campaign season moved into a new phase of political tension on Friday after the Tonse Pamodzi Alliance rejected an Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) advisory seeking to bring presidential campaign activities under a centrally administered timetable.
In a strongly worded statement, the alliance accused the ECZ of acting without sufficient justification and announced that presidential candidate Brian Mundubile and running mate Makebi Zulu would continue with their scheduled campaign activities across Eastern, Muchinga and Northern provinces despite the commission’s directive.
The dispute centres on an ECZ advisory dated June 18, in which the electoral body expressed concern over what it described as a lack of order in presidential campaign movements and proposed a new framework under which presidential campaigns would be conducted according to a timetable developed and administered by the commission.
Tonse Alliance questioned the basis of the directive, arguing that the ECZ had failed to identify any specific violations committed by presidential candidates.
“The Presidential candidates to whom the Advisory is addressed have not been pointed to any specific violations or infractions they have committed,” the alliance said, adding that its campaign activities had been conducted in accordance with guidelines already issued by the commission.
Alliance officials also argued that campaign teams had already been deployed to multiple provinces ahead of the next phase of their campaign programme and that cancelling those engagements at short notice would impose significant logistical and financial costs.
“To have the teams pulled back to Lusaka at notice of less than twenty-four hours will not only be unfair and unjust but will also result in huge irrecoverable expenses,” the statement read.
The alliance further accused the ECZ of applying standards unevenly, claiming the advisory had been issued while President Hakainde Hichilema, who is also the UPND presidential candidate, continued conducting engagements across the country.
“What makes this Advisory wholly unjustified and bordering on the nefarious is that it has been issued at the time that the Republican President who is also the Presidential Candidate for the Ruling Party is moving freely around the country,” Tonse Alliance said.
Despite its criticism, the alliance indicated it would still participate in Monday’s stakeholder meeting with the electoral commission. However, Mundubile himself will not attend. Instead, the alliance said he would be represented by designated electoral agents while continuing with campaign activities already planned in the three provinces.
The standoff marks one of the first major disputes between a presidential campaign and the electoral commission since the official campaign period began.
With less than two months remaining before Zambia heads to the polls, the episode underscores growing scrutiny of campaign rules, electoral fairness and the management of one of the country’s most competitive elections in recent years.
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THERE GOES THE TEAM OF LAWLESS INDIVIDUALS! THE LAW MEANS NOTHING TO THEM.
