Zambia : Katuta Accuses Commission Of Fuelling Confusion Two Days Before Polls

ECZ insists tick or dash can validate a ballot as Katuta accuses commission of fuelling confusion two days before polls

The Electoral Commission of Zambia has reaffirmed that a ballot paper does not need to be marked with a cross to be valid, insisting that a tick, dash or line drawn clearly within a candidate’s designated space will be counted, after independent presidential candidate Reverend Given Katuta accused the commission of creating confusion so close to Thursday’s election.

Chief Electoral Officer Brown Kasaro told a stakeholders’ meeting on Friday that the position, which he said has been in place since 2006, follows Section 60(6)(b) of the Electoral Process Act No. 35 of 2016, which requires only that a voter’s intention be clear rather than prescribing a specific symbol.

“An X, yes or a tick or a line crossing from right across the ballot paper along that candidate is also acceptable. As long as that marking does not cross over any other candidate, it’s restricted within that particular area for that candidate, it is a valid mark. So you can tick, put a dash, or an X, as long as it’s within that particular candidate,” Kasaro said.

He said the clarification followed public debate after the commission’s weekend announcement that ballots would not be automatically rejected simply because a voter did not use a cross, and stressed that the position was neither new nor a fresh interpretation of the law. “It’s not like the Commission will wait until 72 hours. This provision is intended to ensure that accidental errors made before the ballot is cast do not deny citizens the opportunity to participate in the democratic process,” he said.

ECZ acting director of electoral operations Winner Mwanamoonga said voters should place only one clear mark, such as an X, in the designated box next to their chosen candidate, warning that one of the leading causes of rejected ballots is voters marking more than one candidate on the same paper. He said writing names, signatures or other identifying marks on a ballot compromises the secrecy of the vote and can result in rejection.

Katuta, however, said the timing of the clarification risked creating exactly the kind of uncertainty the commission says it wants to avoid. In a statement, she accused the ECZ of deliberately introducing changes to voting procedures, and to the announcement and publication of results, so close to polling day that voters, polling agents, candidates and election officials could be left confused.

“With polling only days away, this is not the time to introduce changes or interpretations capable of creating uncertainty among voters, polling agents, candidates and election officials,” Katuta said, calling for a single, uniformly communicated standard to be applied nationwide before voting begins.

She said the departure from the long-understood requirement that voters mark ballots with a cross or X had raised particular concern, and questioned whether the commission intended to recognise additional markings without adequately explaining the legal basis for doing so. She warned that conflicting instructions at polling stations could lead to disputes over whether individual ballots should be accepted or rejected.

Katuta also raised concerns over the progressive announcement and publication of election results, arguing that the credibility of an election depends not only on the declaration of a winner but on a process that candidates, polling agents, observers and citizens can independently follow, verify and reconcile at every stage, from polling stations through constituency tallying centres to the national results centre.

She called on the ECZ to urgently clarify its announcements before polling begins, to ensure polling-station results are announced openly with agents receiving copies of the relevant results forms, and to close what she described as an unnecessary information vacuum between polling day and the declaration of final results.

Lawyer and governance commentator Tobias Hamunkoyo, writing separately, said the confusion stemmed from Regulation 33(d) of the Electoral Process General Regulations, which instructs voters to use a cross, being read in isolation from Regulation 46(2), which provides that a ballot marked otherwise than by a cross is not invalid for that reason alone, provided the voter’s intention is clear and the mark does not identify the voter.

“The X is the prescribed method; the voter’s intention is the purpose; and the law determines whether the ballot should be counted or rejected,” Hamunkoyo wrote, urging voters to continue using an X where possible while cautioning that the law could not simply be reduced to the shape of a mark.

Section 68(2) of the Electoral Process Act sets out the specific grounds on which a presiding officer may reject a ballot, including where the paper identifies the voter, contains votes for more than one candidate, is unmarked, lacks the required official mark, or is marked in a way that makes it impossible to reasonably determine the voter’s choice.

The ECZ said its wider voter education campaign, including community radio broadcasts in seven local languages and nationwide billboards, has been intensified in the campaign’s final days specifically to reduce the number of ballots rejected for avoidable reasons, after 126,569 ballots were rejected in the 2021 general election, more than the total votes garnered by that year’s third-placed presidential candidate.

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