ZAMBIA’S Consul General in Dubai Richard Njolomba has urged Zambians to trust the electoral process, saying both the ballot printing exercise and the printer have proved to be credible. Meanwhile, Njolomba says Zambia is attracting a lot of investment interest from the United Arab Emirates, stating that several companies are expected to visit the country […]

ZAMBIA’S Consul General in Dubai Richard Njolomba has urged Zambians to trust the electoral process, saying both the ballot printing exercise and the printer have proved to be credible.

Meanwhile, Njolomba says Zambia is attracting a lot of investment interest from the United Arab Emirates, stating that several companies are expected to visit the country after the elections to explore investment opportunities.

And Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) Commissioner Ambassador Ndiyoi Mutiti has thanked the Consulate for its support, saying the ballot printing process has been successfully completed with the participation of stakeholders.

Speaking when Ambassador Mutiti led a delegation of election stakeholders on a courtesy call at the Zambian Consulate in Dubai yesterday, Njolomba commended ECZ and all stakeholders for conducting what he described as one of the most important stages of the electoral process in a transparent manner.

“For me, what I appreciate mostly is the work that you’ve done. I’ve been in your position before. And perhaps this is one of the most important aspects of elections, monitoring the printing of the ballot papers. I have seen the tension in the public domain, so we appreciate you extremely for what you have done and you’ve created that confidence. I know there were a bit of conflicts here and there, a lot of murmurings, but from where I am, I’ve seen that the work has been well handled, and we thank you. As you go back, please go well, and I hope that the same spirit of collaboration between parties and other stakeholders will continue,” he said.

Njolomba also commended Al Ghurair Printing, the company that printed the ballot papers, saying it was a reputable institution.

“One thing I can add on to the people of Zambia is that we should learn to trust in the electoral process. We can have differences in terms of individuals, but the process, as I’ve seen it here, is credible. Not just the credibility in the process, but we have also seen the credibility of the company that is printing. This is not a company that you find in the corner somewhere. This is a highly reputable institution, and they are not in the business of doing funny things. Having confidence in the printer is very important, and all Zambians must put trust in the process,” he said.

Further, Njolomba said investor confidence in Zambia had continued to grow, attributing the development to the country’s improved investment climate over the past five years.

“Our role here, if you look at where we are now, we’re becoming one of the busiest units, more or less. We literally have visitors every week. So my colleague there is a busy guy. There are times he has to wake up at one o’clock or two o’clock to go and receive visitors because literally everyone is passing through. But also what is important, apart from the consular services, what you see in this office is there is a huge growth in terms of investment interest from here to Zambia. You just saw when you came here, I was speaking to a number of businessmen. We literally have those kinds of meetings every day. That’s how much interest in Zambia there is,” said Njolomba.

“And all this has happened in the past five years because there is a kind of friendly environment for businesses to invest in Zambia. That is what has caused all this influx. And I think we are working on, by September, having about six different groups of companies wanting to go to Zambia just to invest in Zambia. What we are also seeing is a huge growth in trade from Zambia, with Zambians buying here. There’s a big growth. And so you will see a lot of this happening in the next few years. I think once the elections are over, we’re going to see even more focused growth and interest in Zambia. So this is what we are; we look at ourselves as a consulting unit where businessmen come here, they consult, and we try to provide good solutions and work in collaboration with the government in Zambia. So, we are quite busy”.

And Ambassador Mutiti thanked the Consulate for its support throughout the printing exercise.

“Thank you for receiving my delegation. The delegation is comprised of ECZ staff and other stakeholders in the electoral process and of course, our fourth estate, the media. We had other stakeholders who were taking part in this process. We had political parties from both the ruling party and the opposition, we have had civil society, the Church, security agencies and of course, you represented the missions as well because we had one of the officers from your consulate, who was also in attendance. As you’ve rightly pointed out, the purpose of our being here is to oversee the printing of the ballot papers for the August 2026 elections, and this has been undertaken successfully,” said Ambassador Mutiti.

“It has taken a long time, the groups have been here for almost a month, about a month now. We’ve had some who came and they’ve gone back, and then you had some of us who came much later. But we’ve had others like the political parties, Citizens First, they have been here from the beginning. They haven’t gone back at all. So it’s been a very transparent process because we have engaged every stakeholder. We have been able to interface, we’ve been able to talk with one another. We’ve been able to check how the processes are being done, so that what is now the outcome of this process is something that not just the Commission, but the stakeholders also can say we participated in the process. And that’s why we are where we are. After having concluded, at the moment, we are now in the very last stages of the process, which is now the dispatch. What is remaining now will be undertaken in Lusaka, the stakeholder inspections and dispatch within the country, right up to polling day. We are grateful for your support”.