All eyes on ConCourt
THE Constitutional Court is today scheduled to determine if President Lungu is eligible to contest the 2021 Presidential elections.
Mr. Lungu was first elected as Zambia’s President on January 20, 2015 following the death of then incumbent President Michael Sata on October 28, 2014. He ruled for about one year and six months up to August 11, 2016 when he was re- elected for his current term. According to the Constitution of Zambia (Amendment) Act Number 2 of 2016, the term of office for a President is five years and Mr. Lungu assumed the Presidency after the late Mr. Sata had served three years and one month. Following his 2016 victory, Mr. Lungu, a lawyer by profession, declared his intention to contest the 2021 polls on grounds that his first tenure was less than three years and therefore did not amount to a full term but critics have argued that he is seeking a third term. Majority of them have based their argument on Article 106 (3) of the Constitution which provides that “a person who has twice held office as President is not eligible for election as President.” This debate prompted four opposition leaders to petition the Constitutional Court to interpret the Constitution on Mr. Lungu’s eligibility to seek another mandate in the next three years. In this matter, the petitioners are Daniel Pule (Christian Democratic Party), Wright Musoma (Zambia Republican Party), Robert Mwanza (Citizens Democratic Party), and Peter Chanda (New Congress Party). They want the court to declare that President Lungu’s first term of office begun in September 2016 when he was sworn in as Head of State and that his August 11, 2016 victory was his first full term as President of Zambia and therefore he is eligible to contest the 2021 polls. During hearing, Attorney General Likando Kalaluka submitted that Mr. Lungu qualifies to stand in 2021 because he only served one year of the inherited term as opposed to a three-year term, which is considered to be a full term in the new Constitution. And the petitioners’ lawyer Bonaventure Mutale also submitted that Mr. Lungu should be allowed to contest the 2021 polls because his stay in office from 2015 to 2016 did not constitute a full term.