By Suleman Chitera

The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) is expected to provide its first official update on the election results around mid-morning today, as the country waits for the outcome of the polls amid continued counting and verification.

ECZ Chief Electoral Officer Brown Kasaro said the Commission was not yet in a position to give a precise time when the first results would be announced, but assured the public that an official update would be provided today.

Kasaro was speaking at the National Results Centre in Lusaka, where the Commission is coordinating the receipt, verification and consolidation of results from across the country.

He said the process of sharing results would begin today as counting and other procedures continued at polling stations and constituency centres.

However, Kasaro stressed the importance of distinguishing between results announced at individual polling stations and the official results for an entire constituency.

According to the ECZ chief electoral officer, polling station results are already in the public domain because they are announced at the respective polling stations after counting. However, those figures should not be interpreted as the final results for a constituency.

“The Commission will not be announcing polling station results, because that is done at the polling station level,” Kasaro said.

He explained that the ECZ would only start announcing constituency results after all results from polling stations within a constituency had been received, verified and consolidated.

Once that process is completed, the constituency returning officer will announce the consolidated constituency results.

The clarification comes as attention turns to the National Results Centre, where political parties, election observers, the media and members of the public are closely monitoring the transmission and verification of results.

Kasaro said the counting process itself requires considerable time, with an average of about six hours needed to complete counting at a polling station.

The duration of the process means that results will not necessarily arrive at the National Results Centre at the same time, with different constituencies progressing through counting, verification and consolidation at different speeds.

The ECZ has therefore urged the public to exercise patience while election officials complete the procedures required before results can be officially declared.

The Commission’s position also underscores the importance of verification in ensuring that figures released to the public accurately reflect the results recorded through the electoral process.

As the country awaits the first official results update, attention is expected to remain focused on the National Results Centre, with citizens keen to receive verified information from the electoral authority rather than relying on unofficial projections or isolated polling-station figures.

The coming hours are therefore expected to be significant as the ECZ begins providing updates on the results that have been received, verified and consolidated.

The Commission’s announcement will provide the public with a clearer picture of how the results process is progressing and set the stage for the formal release of constituency-level results.

For now, the ECZ says the counting and verification process remains underway, with the first official update expected around mid-morning today.

Malawi Freedom Network will continue to follow the results process and provide verified updates as they are officially released by the Electoral Commission of Zambia.