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The Zambia Federation of Disability Organisations (ZAFOD) says it is contemplating on taking the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) back to the High Court over its failure to implement the 2011 High Court Sera Brotherton judgment.
The 2011 Sera Brotherton judgment ordered the Commission to ensure the fulfillment of political rights for citizens with disabilities across the country.
ZAFOD Programmes Manager, Misheck Mutamba, said this on the sidelines of the dissemination meeting on the ZAFOD Accessibility Assessment, Voter Registration and Electoral Participation, 2025 report titled “Votes Without Barries in Lusaka on Friday.
Mutamba criticized ECZ for failing to ensure polling stations were accessible to voters with disabilities, despite the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) guaranteeing access to political and public life.
He said the lack of accessibility had been a persistent issue, with reports indicating that many registration centers across the country were not accessible to voters with disabilities.
Mutamba expressed frustration with the ECZ’s lack of response to the concerns and the inaction had led to concerns that citizens with disabilities were being disenfranchised.
“I was in a Kafue, I as an observer, almost all the eight registration centers that I visited were not accessible to voters with disability. About over twenty districts of Zambia and the story is the same,” he stated.
Mutamba restated that the organization was considering all options, including going back to the High Court, to ensure citizens with disabilities can exercise their right to vote.
“And so this song has been running over and over with very little any response from the stakeholder who is charged with the responsibility to ensure that there’s no citizen who is franchised because of disability,” he noted.
Mutamba urged the Commission to take immediate action to address these issues and ensure that citizens with disabilities could participate fully in the electoral process.
“We are disturbed by the inertia that we have often received from ECZ with regards to implementation of the 2011 High Court judgment,” he said.
“We’ve reached a crossroads where we cannot continue to engage with citizens and see them disenfranchised because of disability,” Mutamba added.
In the report, it urged the ECZ to prioritize disability inclusion by publishing and implementing a comprehensive Accessibility and Inclusion Strategy ahead of the 2026 general elections.
It called on the ECZ to use disability-disaggregated voter registration data to guide accessibility planning and this includes identifying polling stations that require temporary ramps, relocating stations to accessible venues where possible, ensuring at least one voting booth at table height for wheelchair users.
The organisation also called for the deployment of certified sign language interpreters in areas where deaf voters are registered and for the training of all polling officials in basic disability etiquette and inclusive communication among other recommendations.
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