- Kasolo, who contested position, claims procedure was not followed
CHOMBA MUSIKA
Lusaka
A LAWYER who lost elections at the recent Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) annual general meeting has asked the Lusaka High Court to invalidate the association’s recent polls, which he claims were flawed.
Anthony Kunda-Kasolo, who was contesting the vicepresident position, alleges that the election – held on April 11, 2026 in Livingstone – did not follow procedure.
Mr Kasolo wants the court to grant him an order directing the new Arnold Kaluba-led LAZ council to organise and conduct fresh elections in strict conformity with the law.
He submits that since the elections never conformed to the law, the results of the same should be declared invalid, null and void.
Mr Kasolo further seeks an order for scrutiny and recount
of the votes cast during the polls, at which an individual managing the electronic vote was apprehended.
He also wants an order for an audit of the system and technology used by LAZ in the elections, including the servers: website/portal.
The petitioner claims that more individuals were added to the list of eligible voters after the list published by the Legal Practitioners Committee had already been closed.
He further alleges that the servers used for the electronic voting system were located outside Zambia, and were under the control of third parties, thereby compromising the voting process’s integrity.
The petitioner submits that no consent was obtained from the Data Protection Commission or LAZ members to host election data outside the country, as required by law.
He submits that on April 11, 2026, the association conducted the elections by electronic means and it engaged a South African entity, David Wilson Participate Technologies, to conduct the votes.
The total of eligible voters published on April 9, 2026 by the Legal Practitioners Committee was 2,570.
“The purported results of elections erroneously dated 27th April 2024, declared by the returning officer, indicated that the total number of eligible voters was 2,565 and the total votes cast 1,825, with 170 abstaining.”
Mr Kasolo said during the voting period, the specialist exclusively in charge of the electronic voting, David Wilson, was apprehended at the venue for interrogation by Immigration officers.
He submits that consequently, Mr Wilson never managed the system throughout the entire period of voting.
“…the agents and candidates did not have access to the tallying room, which was supposed to show live vote tallies.
“…all eligible voters had their voting access codes sent to the spam folder of their respective electronic mails. By reason thereof, many eligible voters were disenfranchised as they could not find the respective voting access code.”…https://enews.daily-mail.co.zm/welcome/home
