Polls closed at 18:00 on Thursday 13 August and the first official results are due imminently: the Electoral Commission of Zambia said its first batch would be announced from 22:00 on Friday 14 August. Each of the 226 constituencies is counted and verified locally before its returning officer declares a winner, so seats were always going to arrive in batches rather than all at once; no seat is official until the ECZ declares it. The 40 proportional-representation seats are not part of that count — they are allocated from national vote shares after the constituency results are settled. What happens next: returning officers declare constituencies in batches over the coming days. This page updates itself — there is nothing to refresh. It re-checks the ECZ every 15 minutes and fills in the seat bar and the province map as declarations arrive; the line under the headline shows when it last checked, and switches to the timestamp of the results once they arrive.
About this election
The National Assembly elected on 13 August 2026 will not look like the one it replaces. A constitutional amendment passed in December 2025 — Bill 7, the largest change to Zambia's electoral architecture since the 2016 constitution — expanded the chamber and changed how it is filled. The number of constituency seats rose from 156 to 226, the product of an Electoral Commission of Zambia delimitation exercise that created 70 new constituencies and took effect in May 2026, the biggest redrawing of the electoral map in the democratic era. Alongside them, 40 seats are now filled by proportional representation from party lists, reserved for groups the first-past-the-post map has historically under-served: 20 for women, 15 for young candidates and 5 for persons with disabilities. That makes 266 elected members, on top of which the President may nominate up to 11 more — a ceiling the amendment introduced, capped at five per cent of the constituency seats — with the Vice-President, the Speaker and two deputy speakers also sitting.
The 226 constituency members are elected by simple plurality in single-member seats: whoever gets the most votes wins, with no threshold and no second round. That is the count that resolves on election night, constituency by constituency, and it is what the seat bar on this page tracks. The 40 proportional seats work differently — they are allocated to parties from lists submitted before the vote, in proportion to national vote share, so they are settled after the national totals are known rather than declared locally. Expect them to be filled later than the constituency results, and expect the final composition of the chamber to shift once they are added. A candidate for the National Assembly must be at least 21 years old; the voting age is 18.
Zambia's parliamentary map regularly diverges from its presidential one, and first-past-the-post amplifies the difference. Independents are a standing feature rather than a curiosity: 13 were elected in 2021, often local heavyweights who lost a party primary and ran anyway, and they hold the balance in provinces where the two big parties are close. Ticket-splitting is common, so a province can back one presidential candidate while returning MPs from another party. And because the winner needs only a plurality, a divided opposition can hand a seat to a party that polled well under half the vote in it. With 70 brand-new constituencies carved out of old ones, incumbency and local name recognition count for less than usual in 2026, and past constituency-level results are a weaker guide than they normally would be.
The 2021 election produced a decisive UPND majority and sent the Patriotic Front into opposition after a decade in office. The UPND took 82 of the 156 constituency seats and the PF 59 on polling day, with the Party of National Unity and Progress on one and independents on 13. The 156th, Kaumbwe, did not vote in August: polling there was postponed to October 2021 after the death of a candidate, and the PF won it — which is why the final split is usually quoted as 82–60. The parliament that followed was marked by a steady trickle of by-elections and by the disintegration of the PF itself, whose leadership dispute ran through the courts for most of the term and was still unresolved when nominations closed — which is why the Tonse Alliance's candidates contest this election under other party labels.
| National Assembly (2021) | Seats |
| United Party for National Development (UPND) | 82 |
| Patriotic Front (PF) | 59 |
| Kaumbwe (postponed to Oct 2021, won by PF) | 1 |
| Independents | 13 |
| Party of National Unity and Progress (PNUP) | 1 |
The province map on this page colours each of Zambia's ten provinces by the party leading its constituency declarations, and clicking a province opens its full seat breakdown. In 2021 the pattern was stark at the edges and close in the middle: the UPND swept Southern (18 of 18), North-Western (12 of 12) and almost all of Western, while the PF took every seat in Muchinga and all but two in Luapula. The contest was decided in between — the Copperbelt split 9–9 with four independents, Central went 10–4 to the UPND, Northern went 9–4 to the PF, and Eastern returned a three-way mix of PF, UPND and independents. Those middle provinces, plus Lusaka, are where the 70 new constituencies concentrate the most population, so they carry even more weight in 2026.
Bill 7 passed the National Assembly unanimously in December 2025 and was assented to days later, but it did not pass without objection. A coalition of civil-society organisations criticised the package on several grounds: the speed of the process, the introduction of the mixed system so close to a general election, changes to by-election rules and to parliamentary dissolution timelines, the return of MPs to local councils, and the expansion of presidential nominees. Supporters argue that the reserved proportional seats are the only realistic route to a parliament that reflects a country where women, young people and persons with disabilities have been persistently under-represented, and that the delimitation simply catches up with three decades of population growth. The 2026 election is the first real test of the design.
This page updates itself on election night. Party seat totals, the composition bar and the province map are read directly from the Electoral Commission of Zambia's official results portal as returning officers declare constituencies, and the seat total shown is whatever the ECZ itself reports for the count in progress rather than a number assumed here. Results are provisional until the commission certifies them. The 40 proportional-representation seats are allocated from national vote shares after the constituency count and are not included in the running seat bar; the presidential contest held the same day has its own live results page.
226 members are elected by first-past-the-post in single-member constituencies — up from 156, after a delimitation exercise that created 70 new constituencies with effect from May 2026 — plus 40 members chosen by proportional representation from party lists. That is 266 elected members; the President may nominate up to 11 more, and the Vice-President, Speaker and two deputy speakers also sit.
Bill 7, passed in December 2025, expanded the constituency seats from 156 to 226 and introduced a mixed system by adding 40 proportional-representation seats reserved for women (20), youth (15) and persons with disabilities (5), allocated to parties from pre-submitted lists in proportion to national vote share. It also capped presidential nominees at 11. Civil-society groups objected to the speed of the process and to several other provisions; the bill nonetheless passed unanimously.
Constituency results are declared locally and accumulate through the night and the following days, so the seat bar on this page fills in progressively. The 40 proportional seats are allocated only after national vote shares are settled, so the chamber's final composition is confirmed later than the constituency count.
They use different systems and different ballots. First-past-the-post rewards local strength and lets a candidate win a seat with well under half the vote when the opposition is split, independents regularly win seats (13 did in 2021), and voters often split their ticket between a presidential candidate and a local MP from another party.
In 2021 the UPND won 82 of the 156 constituency seats and the Patriotic Front 59, with 13 independents and one seat for the Party of National Unity and Progress. Kaumbwe, the 156th, voted only in October 2021 after a candidate died, and the PF took it — giving the final 82–60 split usually quoted.
Yes. This page carries a map of Zambia's ten provinces, coloured by the party leading each province's constituency declarations, with a full seat breakdown when you click a province. The figures come from the constituency declarations published by the ECZ.
Compiled and reviewed by Bartłomiej Paruzel, Election Data Analyst, from official results. See our data methodology.