The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) says printing of Presidential ballot papers is progressing well, with about 4.7 million ballots already produced and serial numbering and stitching into booklets is now underway.
Addressing stakeholders in Dubai, ECZ Vice Chairperson Major General Vincent Mukanda, also moved to quell public concerns over the ballot printing process, insisting there are no extra ballots and that security features will not be made public.
Maj Gen Mukanda (RTD) told party representatives and observers that the Commission plans to print approximately 9 million Presidential ballot papers and explained that the figure is driven by ECZ’s long standing practice of producing ballots in serialized booklets of 50.
“Ballot papers are printed and stitched into serialized booklets of 50 as part of a long established practice and this has been the Commission’s standard packaging method since 2006,” he said.
Maj Gen Mukanda said a polling station with 502 registered voters cannot receive exactly 502 ballots because when they come in the 50s, the station would be supplied 11 booklets, or 550 ballots.
“The remaining 48 ballot papers are accounted for and reconciled during and after polling, therefore, the Commission wishes to categorically state that there will be no separate packages of the so called extra ballot papers,” he explained.
Maj Gen Mukanda stated that to protect integrity, ECZ listed several controls among them is continuous monito, multi stage verification from production to delivery and full reconciliation of issued, used, spoiled and unused ballots after polling.
He added that security features will not be revealed to the public.
“Disclosing the security features of the ballot papers defeats the whole purpose why they are called security features, in the first place,” he stated.
Maj Gen Mukanda added that embedded measures are meant to ensure only authentic ballots are used and to deter counterfeiting.
The ECZ began printing on Monday, 29th June 2026 and said it will continue providing regular updates until the process concludes later this month.
