THE Electoral Commission of Zambia is yet to announce consolidated results.

Addressing journalists at a press briefing at 15:00 hours, Friday, ECZ chief electoral officer Patrick Nshindano said the results would be finalised soon.

He promised that some results would be announced at 16:00 hours but at the time of this writing, nothing had been released yet.

“We will have the full panel of the commission in the next hour where we will be able to provide you with what has been consolidated thus far. Due to the high turnout, most of the polling stations are actually concluding the counting, some are still doing that. We hope that they will be finalized soon, we have a few. I am sure in an hour, we will be able to give you those updates,” Nshindano said.

When asked if the results circulated on social media were true he said they should be treated as fake.

“We have incidents where candidates have celebrated prematurely. We encourage you to wait for the official results. We call upon the public to remain patient and calm, you will be given what you voted for. The congratulatory messages are not familiar to the Commission. We have always indicated that there is only one institution that is mandated to announce election results. So wherever those results are, treat them just as that, until the Commission announces the official results. To start declaring somebody before the last poll is closed or finalised is premature,” said Nshindano.

He said the shutdown of the internet had not affected the announcing results.

Nshindano also dispelled social media allegations that a polling agent was caught with ballot papers.

He added that there were incidents of the Commission running out of ink in some polling stations but that the issue was resolved within hours.