{"id":82451,"date":"2026-04-18T20:26:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T20:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/ecz-stakeholder-meeting-a-circus-of-jokers-says-chanda"},"modified":"2026-04-18T20:26:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T20:26:29","slug":"ecz-stakeholder-meeting-a-circus-of-jokers-says-chanda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/ecz-stakeholder-meeting-a-circus-of-jokers-says-chanda","title":{"rendered":"Ecz Stakeholder Meeting A Circus Of Jokers Says Chanda"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Zambia. <\/strong><\/span>The leader of the opposition United Prosperous And Peaceful Zambia party has launched a scathing attack on named attendees , dismissing a recent high\u2010level stakeholder meeting as a circus of clowns called upon by the electoral Commission Of Zambia-ECZ.<\/p>\n<p>Charles Chanda says the gathering was a sham, with most participants appearing completely lost.<\/p>\n<p>The meeting, called by the ECZ to discuss the roadmap for August 2026 general election, was supposed to be a serious forum for political parties, civil society and the media to iron out the country\u2019s electoral plans.<\/p>\n<p>But according to Mr Chanda, it was nothing of the sort.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to reporters shortly after the meeting, the UPPZ leader was characteristically blunt, branding the entire gathering as, quote, \u201ca meeting of jokers\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He went on to say that most of those present seemed utterly blank on what was happening and that the ECZ had assembled a cast of figures who were ill\u2010prepared and lacked any real understanding of the issues at hand. \u201cThey are just clowns,\u201d Mr Chanda said, \u201cwho have no clue about the serious matters they are supposed to be addressing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr Chanda\u2019s outburst raises fresh questions about the credibility of the commission\u2019s consultative process, just months before the country heads to the polls.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Zambia<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Zambia. The leader of the opposition United Prosperous And Peaceful Zambia party has launched a scathing attack on named attendees , dismissing a recent high\u2010level stakeholder meeting as a circus of clowns called upon by the electoral Commission Of Zambia-ECZ. Charles Chanda says the gathering was a sham, with most participants appearing completely [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":82450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,7,8,248],"tags":[233],"class_list":["post-82451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-to-homepage","tag-zambia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ecz Stakeholder Meeting A Circus Of Jokers Says Chanda - Zambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/ecz-stakeholder-meeting-a-circus-of-jokers-says-chanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ecz Stakeholder Meeting A Circus Of Jokers Says Chanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa-Press &#8211; Zambia. The leader of the opposition United Prosperous And Peaceful Zambia party has launched a scathing attack on named attendees , dismissing a recent high\u2010level stakeholder meeting as a circus of clowns called upon by the electoral Commission Of Zambia-ECZ. 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