Lusaka lawyer and media expert Dickson Jere has challenged the widespread description of Zambia’s new Proportional Representation (PR) Members of Parliament as “nominated MPs”, arguing that the terminology does not accurately reflect their constitutional status.
Jere made the clarification in a recent post titled “They Are Elected, Not Nominated”, following the Electoral Commission of Zambia’s validation of 40 Members of Parliament under the new Proportional Representation system.
According to Jere, the Constitution makes a clear distinction between Members of Parliament who enter the National Assembly through the PR electoral system and those who are actually nominated by the President.
The Constitution of Zambia, as amended by Act No. 13 of 2025, provides for 226 constituency-based MPs, 40 MPs elected through the proportional representation system and not more than 11 MPs nominated by the President. The 40 PR seats comprise 20 women, 15 youths and five persons with disabilities.
Jere argues that the 40 MPs under the PR system should therefore be regarded as elected MPs because their seats arise from the electoral process rather than a presidential appointment.
The new electoral framework introduced a Mixed Member Proportional Representation system for National Assembly elections. Under the system, constituency-based MPs continue to be elected through the First-Past-the-Post system, while the reserved seats for women, youths and persons with disabilities are allocated through proportional representation.
One of the most important features of the new system is the connection between the presidential vote and the allocation of PR seats.
Article 47 of the amended Constitution provides that the 40 PR seats are distributed after a general election to qualifying political parties in proportion to the total number of valid votes received by their presidential candidates.
This means that the presidential vote has an additional consequence beyond determining who becomes President.
It also contributes to determining how the 40 proportional representation seats are distributed among qualifying political parties.
Jere explained that voters effectively participate in the process through their presidential vote, although the candidates who eventually occupy the PR seats are selected from party lists submitted under the electoral framework.
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The Electoral Commission of Zambia recently confirmed the mechanism while orienting qualifying political parties on the allocation of the PR seats. The Commission said the 40 National Assembly seats would be distributed as 20 women’s seats, 15 youth seats and five seats for persons with disabilities, using the valid presidential votes obtained by qualifying parties at national level.
The distinction becomes even clearer when Article 68 is considered.
The Constitution separately provides for “not more than eleven nominated Members of Parliament”, while the 40 PR MPs are listed as a separate category of Members of Parliament.
Article 69 deals specifically with presidential nominations, stating that the President may nominate people where considered necessary to enhance representation of special interests, skills or gender in the National Assembly.
Jere therefore argues that the term “nominated MP” should be reserved for this presidentially nominated category rather than being applied to the 40 MPs who obtain seats through the PR electoral system.
The distinction is also reflected in Article 71 of the amended Constitution. It provides that a nomination for a PR seat is valid once the prescribed election fee is paid to the Electoral Commission.
This is an important part of the process because “nomination” in this context refers to the submission and validation of candidates for an election; it does not necessarily mean that the person has been appointed by the President.
The recent validation process has nevertheless created some confusion because the ECZ and sections of the media have referred to the 40 individuals as nominated candidates or nominated MPs.
For example, reports on the September 18 validation exercise described the ECZ as validating 40 “nominated” MPs, comprising 20 women, 15 youths and five persons with disabilities.
Jere’s argument is therefore essentially about the constitutional distinction between being nominated to contest or qualify under an electoral process and being appointed as a nominated Member of Parliament by the President.
He also compared Zambia’s system with proportional representation in South Africa, where voters primarily vote for political parties and parliamentary seats are allocated according to the parties’ share of the vote.
Zambia’s model is different because it combines constituency-based First-Past-the-Post representation with proportional representation.
The result is a hybrid electoral system in which MPs can enter Parliament through different routes, but the routes should not necessarily be described using the same terminology.
The new system has now moved from legislation into practical application, with the ECZ having validated all 40 PR MPs following the 2026 general election. The two qualifying parties were the United Party for National Development and the National Reconciliation Party for Unity and Prosperity, with reports indicating that UPND secured 32 of the 40 seats while NRPUP secured eight.
The new PR MPs are expected to be sworn into Parliament as part of the process of taking up their new positions.
For Jere, however, the terminology matters because describing the 40 PR MPs as simply “nominated MPs” can blur an important constitutional distinction between elected representatives under the Mixed Member Proportional Representation system and MPs nominated directly by the President.
His clarification comes as Zambia begins implementing the country’s new electoral system, which has introduced a new pathway into the National Assembly for women, youths and persons with disabilities.
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