Concourt nods Mwanakatwe stay
MARGARET Mwanakatwe will continue to hold her Lusaka Central and ministerial portfolios after the Constitutional Court yesterday ruled that her stay of execution of the single judge was relevant.
In this matter, UPND losing candidate in the Lusaka central Parliamentary election Charlotte Scott moved the full bench of the ConCourt to rehear the stay of Ms Mwanakatwe as MP after ConCourt judge Enock Mulembe ruled that he found the application for stay irrelevant because the appeal was serving the same purpose.
Dr Scott’s objection to the application for stay was that there was no law that allowed Ms Mwanakatwe to maintain the seat until final determination by the court. She argued that the seat was declared vacant upon nullification.
And Ms Mwanakatwe argued that the application was conclusively heard by the single judge and that there was no need to rehear it.
She further argued that the law did not allow the full bench to rehear an application that was conclusively heard by a single judge.
In its ruling delivered by court Judge Annie Sitali, the court declined to rehear the matter on grounds that it was already heard by a single judge.
“We decline to be drawn into rehearing a matter which was already heard by a single judge. The ruling of the judge stands,” justice Sitali said.
She further ruled that the application was not properly before court, as it should have been brought by originating summons and not Notice of Motions.
The court has also thrown out Dr Scott’s preliminary issue to dismiss Ms Mwanakatwe’ s appeal on grounds that her record of appeal was defective.
Dr Scott’s ground of arguments were that Ms Mwanakatwe had included hand written notes which were not part of proceeding in the High Court. Further that Ms Mwanakatwe also submitted a blank CD as part of her evidence.
But the court ruled that the defects in the appeal were not fatal as they did not go to the roots of the appeal.
The court ordered Ms Mwanakatwe to file an amended record of appeal within 14 days, in default will render the appeal dismissed.