Zambia’s Electoral Commission is hiding the names of its own polling staff, the Tonse-Pamodzi Alliance claimed on Monday, opening a press briefing ten days before the country votes with a warning shot at the referee of the election itself.

Celestine Mukandila said district electoral officers had gone silent on when ballot papers would arrive in constituencies, breaching what he called an earlier agreement with the commission. “Speculation is ours to have,” he said, accusing the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) of leaving alliance agents blind days before polling.

He then escalated. Lists of newly recruited polling staff carried National Registration Card numbers but no names, Mukandila said, and lawyers for the alliance had already written demanding full disclosure. “What is it that they are scared of,” he asked, alleging the commission was shielding “political cadres” recruited to run the vote on behalf of the ruling UPND.

From there, the briefing turned toward the border. Mukandila issued what he called marching orders to party agents in the swamps of Chilubi Island, warning of unnamed foreign nationals allegedly brought in to vote. He named Isoka, where he claimed Tanzanians may hold Zambian voting documents, Vubwi and Malawians, Chavuma and Ikelenge and Congolese and Angolan nationals. No evidence was presented.

Mukandila closed his section with a direct threat to the head of state, declaring Zambians had already chosen Tonse-Pamodzi candidate Brian Mundubile as “the people’s president” and vowing to remove President Hakainde Hichilema “by the ballot” within ten days.

Binwell Mpundu, the alliance’s Presidential Affairs Chairperson, took the podium next with the briefing’s most explosive claim: three men sent abroad for VVIP protection training have disappeared since landing back in Zambia. He named them as Gideon Kalopa, Victor Muziamba and Dickson Tembo, saying they had travelled to Russia to train in physical protection for Mundubile and running mate Makebi Zulu, then vanished after clearing Kenneth Kaunda International Airport on their return.

Mpundu offered no evidence of who took them, but pointed at “the state” or “rogue elements” inside the UPND, and invoked the case of activist Black Apple in the same breath. He listed other alliance supporters he said were being held on what he called flimsy charges, including Kennedy Kamba and Simi Kalonga, and appealed directly to the international community to intervene.

Pressed for a hard number during the briefing’s question period, an NRPUP official confirmed three, said it could rise to four, but “not exceed five,” and conceded the missing men had left and re-entered Zambia lawfully through the airport with full documentation, a detail that sits awkwardly against the abduction claim.

Mpundu then pivoted to the campaign trail itself, alleging the convoy had been attacked repeatedly through the Copperbelt and Northwestern provinces, in places with police assistance, and referenced a personal clash with  Yuyi Mwayi. He said the same violence would now be turned on the Western and Southern provinces, where the alliance campaigns next, and accused the UPND of trying to fracture the Tonse-Pamodzi arrangement by courting figures inside an allied party, ordering members to route all comment through party secretaries general only.

The tone shifted sharply for the briefing’s final act. Secretary General Zumani announced the alliance’s donation platform had raised close to K1 million in its first 24 hours, with a further K2.8 million pledged, before a payment aggregator abruptly cut the platform’s access. A new aggregator has since restored service, Zumani said, issuing a fresh mobile money code, 848704728#, working across MTN, Airtel and Zamtel, alongside Visa and a USDT (TRC20) cryptocurrency wallet aimed at diaspora donors who wish to remain anonymous.

Mukandila returned to defend the fundraising drive against UPND mockery, arguing every campaign runs on donor money and accusing the ruling party of hypocrisy, alleging its own war chest is linked to the ZNS “millimill” scandal and mining-sector patronage. “We don’t have any lives after this election if these people win,” he said, framing the donation drive as a way to keep Mundubile answerable to citizens rather than foreign backers.

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