LUSAKA – Poll staff training in Lusaka is under way for 7,496 shortlisted personnel ahead of Zambia’s 2026 General Election.
The trainees were selected from more than 15,000 people who applied to work as poll staff in the district, according to District Publicity Coordinator Namakau Pumulo.
Ms Pumulo said the exercise is being conducted at ten schools across Lusaka and is expected to conclude within three days.
The trained personnel will then be deployed to their respective polling centres between Tuesday and Wednesday, she said.
Preparing staff for polling-day duties
The training is intended to equip poll staff with knowledge of the electoral process and the procedures they will be expected to follow while carrying out their duties.
According to Ms Pumulo, the programme also covers delimitation and the mixed-member proportional representation system.
The scale of the exercise reflects the staffing requirements involved in administering elections in Lusaka, Zambia’s most populous district. From the more than 15,000 applications received, just under half of the applicants were shortlisted for training.
Poll staff are central to the administration of voting at polling-station level. Their preparation is therefore an important operational step ahead of the general election, particularly in ensuring that election procedures are applied consistently across polling centres.
The three-day programme is expected to be followed immediately by deployment, giving the selected personnel a short period in which to move from classroom instruction to their assigned election duties.
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