Chishimba Kambwili has called on the Electoral Commission of Zambia to ensure the campaign timetable is followed as published, arguing that allowing President Hakainde Hichilema to return to provinces he has already campaigned in hands the ruling party an advantage no other contestant enjoys. The former Chief Government Spokesperson said the President should be held to the same schedule as every other candidate on the ballot.

Mr Kambwili said it would be unjust for the Head of State to campaign a second time in provinces where NRPUP presidential candidate Brian Mundubile has already held his rallies, and that the Commission should ensure the rules are applied consistently. Under the timetable ECZ has published, each presidential candidate is allocated five days to campaign in a given province before moving on to the next stop on the calendar.

“We were all given five days in each province,” Kambwili said. “Once you do those five days, you don’t go back.”

The former minister went further, tying the scheduling dispute to wider concerns about the integrity of the vote itself. He argued that manipulation of an election does not begin at the ballot box but can take root much earlier, during the period when campaigns are being organised and access to voters is being decided.

Mr Kambwili’s complaint follows a similar grievance raised earlier in the campaign by the Tonse Pamodzi Alliance, which backs Mr Mundubile’s candidacy. The Alliance accused the Commission of applying its rules unevenly, saying its own programme in Copperbelt, North-Western and Central provinces had been disrupted after the President travelled to the same areas following the Alliance’s published schedule.

ECZ has addressed the President’s status on the timetable before. Chief electoral officer Brown Kasaro said the calendar was developed to reduce clashes between competing campaigns, allocating specific provinces and periods to each contestant. Commission chairperson Mwangala Zaloumis has said the schedule was built through consultation with all candidates, with the goal of creating a fair environment regardless of a party’s size.

The Commission maintains that Mr Hichilema is not bound by the same rotational schedule as the other candidates because, as sitting Head of State, his travel forms part of ongoing official duties rather than campaign activity. That distinction sits at the heart of Mr Kambwili’s objection. He insists that visits to the same communities amount to campaigning in substance, whatever official framing is attached to them.

Mr Mundubile’s own provincial tour under the ECZ calendar has taken him from Eastern Province through Muchinga, Northern, Luapula and Lusaka, before moving into Central, Copperbelt, North-Western and Western provinces, with Southern Province marking the final leg. Each stop has run to the standard five-day allocation, and candidates are required to notify police at least 24 hours before any public meeting and to vacate a province once their allotted period expires.

The Commission has given no indication that it intends to revisit the exemption granted to the President. The existing timetable remains in force, and both the ruling party and opposition campaigns continue to operate under it as the race moves toward polling day. Mr Kambwili’s remarks add a further voice to a debate over the schedule’s fairness that is likely to persist through the campaign’s closing stretch.

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