MANDEVU: THE ELECTION THAT NEVER WAS Three candidates, one day, zero ballots. Who emptied the race, and why is the law now silent? More than 100,000 registered voters in Mandevu will not cast a single ballot on November 5. The seat has already been handed to the ruling party…

MANDEVU: THE ELECTION THAT NEVER WAS
Three candidates, one day, zero ballots. Who emptied the race, and why is the law now silent?

More than 100,000 registered voters in Mandevu will not cast a single ballot on November 5. The seat has already been handed to the ruling party without a contest. The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) says UPND candidate Adrian Banda will be declared duly elected Member of Parliament. This follows the withdrawal of all three of his rivals in letters dated the same day, October 28, 2026. The episode raises the gravest questions yet about the health of Zambia’s democracy at the start of the new parliamentary term.

The three who walked away are Daniel Chisenga of the FDD and Tonse-Pamodzi Alliance, Ntazana Musukuma Mutungwa of the Leadership Movement, and independent candidate Daniel Daka. ECZ Chief Electoral Officer Brown Kasaro said the letters were served on the commission on October 29. He said Banda, as the only validly nominated candidate, would be declared elected under Regulations 20(3) and 52(2) of the Electoral Process (General) Regulations, 2016. Mandevu now joins Lumezi North and the Mbala mayoral seat, where UPND candidates also went through unopposed after rivals withdrew. The ruling party’s tally in the House now stands at 161 seats.

On paper, it is a clean legal process. In Mandevu, and across the country, it looks like something else entirely. Human rights activist Laura Miti has mocked the official version of events. She suggested that only a mind working at a fraction of its capacity could accept that three candidates simply decided to walk away on the same day.

“Mandevu has gone to the UPND with no election. Using only 10% of our brain cells, we totally believe the other candidates just woke up and withdrew. If we try to use the whole brain God gave us. It shot circuits, so, hey!” Miti said.

Three exits, three stories

Each of the three gave a different reason, and at least one gave two. Mutungwa’s resignation statement said he was quitting the Leadership Movement, abandoning his candidacy, defecting to UPND and endorsing Banda. He said this would “better position Mandevu to access resources, programs and infrastructure.” Yet his letter to the commission reportedly cited financial constraints. Daka simply asked the commission to exclude him, offering no reason at all.

Chisenga’s account is the most disturbing. In a statement issued on October 30, he said his decision was not his wish but was forced by circumstances beyond his control, including intimidation and threats to his life. He alleges that on nomination day, suspected cadres tried to seize his credentials to block his filing. He says his team was attacked in Raphael Chota Ward, with members injured and abducted. He says he withdrew to protect himself, his family and his campaign team.

“None of those attackers have been arrested despite the matter being reported to the police. So for the safety of my life, family and my campaign team I decided to withdraw,” Chisenga said.

The Mwaliteta allegation

The most explosive claim came not from the candidate’s statement but from his alliance. At a media briefing on Friday, Tonse-Pamodzi Alliance Secretary General Muhabi Lungu said Chisenga had told him that a senior UPND figure, Lusaka Province Minister Obvious Mwaliteta, had phoned him. Lungu said the caller warned that if Chisenga did not withdraw in the remaining days, he would be arrested on voting day and charged with non-bailable offences. He said the threats extended to Chisenga’s family, who were told they would not have it easy once he was sent to prison. Lungu added that the candidate had asked to stay at his home temporarily because he feared for his life.

To back the claim, Lungu played an audio recording of a conversation he said he had with Chisenga confirming the threats. A separate account attributed to Chisenga also names the minister. It says he was warned that President Hakainde Hichilema planned to have him arrested, and that he was reminded of the cases of Bowman Lusambo, Joseph Malanji, Brian Mundubile and Makebi Zulu. However, Chisenga’s own signed statement of October 30 names no one in connection with the threats. Earlier, Lungu had described the warning call as having come from “an unknown number.”

Mr Mwaliteta has neither accepted nor denied the allegations. The claims against him have so far come from the Tonse Alliance and remain untested. We have sought his response on whether he spoke to Mr Chisenga during the campaign and, if so, what was discussed. Fairness requires that his account stand on record alongside theirs. His response will be carried in full once received.

Chisenga’s statement complicates the picture further. He accuses his own alliance of abandoning him, saying no Tonse MP, president or councillor joined his campaign. He says his campaign manager, David Kakoma, stopped answering his calls soon after being appointed. In the same statement, he apologised to Mandevu residents and congratulated Banda. A man who says he was driven out by fear also says he was left to fight alone by his own side.

When the law demanded a fresh start

Under the 2016 Constitution, passed during the Patriotic Front era, Mandevu would not have ended this way. Article 52(6) required the ECZ to cancel any election where a candidate resigned, died or was disqualified after nominations. It also required fresh nominations and a new poll within thirty days. The commission applied it in Lusaka Central and Mpulungu in 2021, and cancelled the Kabwata by-election in January 2022. In each case, voters got a new field of candidates, not a coronation.

That provision was not perfect. It was criticised as a tool for tactical withdrawals that forced costly reruns, and the ECZ was accused of applying it unevenly. However, it guaranteed one thing: a candidate’s exit could never hand a rival the seat. The 2025 constitutional amendments under Bill 7 changed that. Governance activist Isaac Mwanza told the Constitutional Court this year that the amendments repealed the provisions that previously permitted fresh nominations, leaving no clear mechanism to replace candidates who resign before polling.

Many Zambians cheered Bill 7 as reform. Mandevu now shows one of its consequences. Under the old law, a withdrawal triggered a fresh contest, while today it hands the seat to whoever is left standing. Miti warned as early as September that the Bill 7 reforms were built to give the ruling party “numbers,” and urged citizens to resist any further push to rewrite the Constitution. Her latest jab at Mandevu suggests she sees the by-election as that warning coming true.

Voices of alarm

Caritas Zambia Executive Director Father Dr Gabriel Mapulanga has called for clear regulations to govern candidate withdrawals. He said three withdrawals on the same day raise questions about democratic standards and electoral integrity. He noted that some candidates cite intimidation while others are suspected of receiving financial inducements. He said the pattern should not be allowed to continue without rules.

SACCORD Executive Director Arthur Muyunda said Chisenga should have reported the threats to police for investigation, as no verified report yet exists. However, he warned that repeated withdrawals risk undermining democratic competition and leaving candidates unopposed. Socialist Party president Dr Fred M’membe called the outcome a manufactured walkover that strips Mandevu voters of their constitutional right to choose. The Tonse Alliance has asked the ECZ to halt the poll, and says it will complain to the Inspector General of Police.

The ruling party sees things differently. Vice-President Mutale Nalumango told Parliament that democracy is competition, and that “nobody in competition creates space for a competitor.” UPND deputy secretary general Gertrude Imenda has blamed earlier withdrawals on a lack of support from opposition parties. On that reading, Mandevu is a story of opposition weakness, not ruling party strength.

Questions that will not go away

Why did three candidates with three different reasons all sign withdrawal letters on the same date?

Why did a candidate who cited money troubles to the commission tell the public he was leaving for development, and then join the winning side?

Who called Daniel Chisenga, and why does his own signed statement name no one?

Why has no one been arrested over the reported Raphael Chota Ward attack?

Why was the ECZ still announcing the arrival of ballot papers for Mandevu after it had received all three withdrawal letters, ballots that then failed to arrive on the expected flight?

And if a seat can now be won simply by emptying the field, what stops it happening again in 2031?

Mandevu was supposed to vote on Thursday. Instead, it will simply be told who represents it. Until these questions are answered in full, that silence will speak louder than any ballot.

Related coverage from breakingnewszambia.com

• MANDEVU BY-ELECTION: THE FRUITS OF THE 2025 (BILL 7) CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT: STRIPPING PARTIES AND VOTERS OF CHOICE AND WEAKENING MULTIPARTY DEMOCRACY- Given Lubinda
• Tonse has asked the Electoral Commission of Zambia to reschedule the Mandevu by election following the withdrawal of three candidates.
• ECZ announces resignation of three candidates for Mandevu Parliamentary by-election