The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) has officially launched the 2026 Delimitation Exercise and provided an update on the roadmap towards the 2026 General Election, marking its first formal engagement with stakeholders this year.
The Commission has announced that district-level sittings will run from 16th to 20th February 2026, during which stakeholders and members of the public in all 116 districts will be invited to make oral and written submissions on proposed constituency boundaries and names.
ECZ Chairperson Mwangala Zaloumis says following this, ECZ will conduct provincial collection of the submissions made across all ten provinces from 23rd February to 16th March before final proposals are revealed.
ECZ Chairperson reaffirmed that delimitation is a constitutional, non-arbitrary and non-political process, guided by Article 59 of the Constitution, with all constituencies required to remain within district boundaries while ensuring fair representation of urban and densely populated areas.
She says the final names and boundaries of constituencies will be published in the Government Gazette by 15th April 2026.
The exercise operationalises the constitutional increase in constituency-based seats from 156 to 226, an addition of 70 seats, ahead of the dissolution of Parliament on 15th May 2026, after which the new constitutional provisions will take full effect.
By Victoria Kayeye Yambani
