The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) has officially released its comprehensive nomination schedule for the upcoming General Election, slated for August 13, 2026. This critical period will see various political aspirants formalize their candidacies across different electoral tiers. Presidential Nominations are scheduled to take place over several days, from May 18th to May 22nd, 2026. Following this, nominations for the National Assembly Election will be conducted on Wednesday, May 20th, 2026. Aspiring Mayoral and Council Chairperson candidates will submit their nominations on Thursday, May 21st, 2026. Lastly, nominations for Ward Councillors are set for Thursday, May 21st, and Friday, May 22nd, 2026.

Amidst these electoral preparations, a notable development involves former Mporokoso Member of Parliament, Brian Mundubile. Mr. Mundubile has announced a significant change in his political affiliation, switching from the Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) party to the National Reconciliation Party for Unity and Prosperity (NRPUP). He will now contest as an aspiring candidate for the August 13, 2026 General Election under the NRPUP banner.

This change of party affiliation carries substantial implications for Mr. Mundubile's nomination process, particularly concerning the preprocessing of supporters required by the ECZ. Presidential aspiring candidates are mandated to present 1000 supporters at once to the Commission for verification before their nomination can be finalized. Although Mr. Mundubile had previously undergone a preprocessing exercise for his supporters as an FDD Presidential aspiring candidate, his recent switch to NRPUP has automatically nullified this prior work.

The ECZ Chairperson, Mwangala Zaloumis, recently clarified the Commission's stance on such scenarios in response to a query from Diamond News. Ms. Zaloumis stated unequivocally that presidential candidates who have paid nomination fees and had their 1,000 supporters preprocessed under one political party, but subsequently decide to contest under a different party, will be required to undergo an entirely fresh preprocessing exercise. She emphasized that the supporters initially preprocessed are intrinsically tied to the original candidate and the specific political party they represented at that time. Consequently, Mr. Mundubile will need to present a new set of 1000 supporters to the ECZ for preprocessing under his new party, the NRPUP, before he can successfully file his nomination papers for the upcoming general election.