Zambia Electoral Geospatial Dataset (1991–2021): Electoral Results and Boundary Shapefiles at Ward, Constituency and District Levels

Abstract

Zambia Electoral Geospatial Dataset (1991–2021) Electoral Results and Boundary Shapefiles at Ward, Constituency and District Levels from the Electoral Commission of Zambia DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21709654 Overview This open‑access dataset contains official Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) election results for presidential, parliamentary, mayoral, and councillor elections held between 1991 and 2021, harmonised with geospatial boundary shapefiles across three delimitation epochs. Results are standardised at the constituency level (presidential and parliamentary), ward level (councillor), and district level (mayoral), enabling seamless longitudinal analysis, spatial modelling, and policy research on Zambian electoral geography. The dataset includes concordance tables to bridge boundary changes, a comprehensive codebook, and fully documented extraction scripts. Key Features 9 presidential elections (1991, 1996, 2001, 2006, 2008 by‑election, 2011, 2015 by‑election, 2016, 2021) – constituency level Parliamentary results for 2011, 2016, 2021 (all 156 constituencies) – constituency level Mayoral / council chairperson results for 2016 and 2021 (116 districts) – district level Councillor (local government) results for 2011, 2016, 2021 (all wards) – ward level Voter registers for 2021 and 2026 – polling station level Boundary shapefiles for three delimitation epochs (1991‑2006, 2011‑2015, 2016‑2021) – constituency and ward levels Concordance tables linking constituency and ward names across epochs Complete data dictionary (codebook) with column descriptions Pipe‑separated CSV format for easy import EPSG:4326 (WGS 84) projection for all geospatial files File Structure db-datalab26-zambia_electoral_geospatial_1991_2021/ │ ├── README.md ├── db-datalab26-electoral_codebook.csv ├── db-datalab26-constituency_concordance.csv ├── db-datalab26-ward_concordance.csv ├── db-datalab26-sample_ground_truth_template.csv │ ├── tabular/ │ ├── presidential_results_1991.csv │ ├── presidential_results_1996.csv │ ├── presidential_results_2001.csv │ ├── presidential_results_2006.csv │ ├── presidential_results_2008.csv │ ├── presidential_results_2011.csv │ ├── presidential_results_2015.csv │ ├── presidential_results_2016.csv │ ├── presidential_results_2021.csv │ ├── parliamentary_results_2011.csv │ ├── parliamentary_results_2016.csv │ ├── parliamentary_results_2021.csv │ ├── mayoral_results_2016.csv │ ├── mayoral_results_2021.csv │ ├── councillor_results_2011.csv │ ├── councillor_results_2016.csv │ ├── councillor_results_2021.csv │ ├── voter_register_2021.csv │ ├── voter_register_2026.csv │ └── db-datalab26-political_parties_and_candidates.csv │ └── spatial/ ├── geojson/ │ ├── db-datalab26-constituencies_1991_2006.geojson │ ├── db-datalab26-constituencies_2011_2015.geojson │ ├── db-datalab26-constituencies_2016_2021.geojson │ ├── db-datalab26-wards_1991_2006.geojson │ ├── db-datalab26-wards_2011_2015.geojson │ └── db-datalab26-wards_2016_2021.geojson └── shapefiles/ ├── db-datalab26-constituencies_1991_2006_shp.zip ├── db-datalab26-constituencies_2011_2015_shp.zip ├── db-datalab26-constituencies_2016_2021_shp.zip ├── db-datalab26-wards_1991_2006_shp.zip ├── db-datalab26-wards_2011_2015_shp.zip └── db-datalab26-wards_2016_2021_shp.zip Total: 5 directories, 37 files Tabular Files by Administrative Level Constituency Level (Presidential / Parliamentary) presidential_results_*.csv – 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2015, 2016, 2021 parliamentary_results_*.csv – 2011, 2016, 2021 District Level (Mayoral) mayoral_results_*.csv – 2016, 2021 Ward Level (Councillor) councillor_results_*.csv – 2011, 2016, 2021 (includes candidate gender for 2016 and 2021) Polling Station Level (Voter Register) voter_register_*.csv – 2021, 2026 Key Columns by Level Constituency Level (Presidential / Parliamentary) election_type – Always "presidential" or "parliamentary" election_year – Year of election constituency_code – 8‑digit zero‑padded code constituency_name – Cleaned, uppercase name candidate_name – Full candidate name party_name – Political party abbreviation votes – Votes received by the candidate rejected_ballot_papers – Rejected ballots total_votes_cast – Total votes cast total_registered_voters – Registered voters constituency_percent_poll – Turnout percentage District Level (Mayoral) election_type – Always "mayoral" election_year – Year of election district_code – District code district_name – District name candidate_name – Full candidate name party_name – Political party abbreviation votes – Votes received by the candidate total_votes_cast – Total votes cast total_registered_voters – Registered voters district_percent_poll – Turnout percentage Ward Level (Councillor) election_type – Always "councillor" election_year – Year of election constituency_code – 8‑digit zero‑padded code constituency_name – Constituency name ward_code – 12‑digit zero‑padded code ward_name – Ward name candidate_name – Full candidate name candidate_gender – M or F (2016, 2021 only) party_name – Political party abbreviation votes – Votes received by the candidate total_votes_cast – Total votes cast total_registered_voters – Registered voters ward_percent_poll – Turnout percentage The full data dictionary with all columns across all files is available in db-datalab26-electoral_codebook.csv. Use Cases Electoral geography – analyse spatial patterns of voting behaviour across constituencies, wards, and districts Longitudinal studies – track changes over three decades Boundary change analysis – use concordance tables Geospatial modelling – integrate with other data sources Voter behaviour analysis – combine voter register data with election results Reproducible research – use the documented extraction pipeline Policy evaluation – assess delimitation impacts at multiple levels Citation Phiri, L. (2026). Zambia Electoral Geospatial Dataset (1991–2021): Electoral Results and Boundary Shapefiles at Constituency, Ward, and District Levels (Version 1.0) [Dataset]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21709654 Acknowledgements We gratefully acknowledge the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) for publishing the original election reports and delimitation shapefiles. This dataset was curated by the DataLab Research Group at the University of Zambia. License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)