LUNGU ELIGIBLE
Concourt rules President Lungu can contest 2021 polls
The court said in its judgement delivered yesterday that President Lungu was currently serving his first term in office as his inherited tenure that run from January 25 2015 to September 2016 after the death of then incumbent president Micheal Sata could not be considered as a full term
PRESIDENT Edgar Lungu is eligible to contest the 2021 presidential election, the Constitutional Court has ruled.
The court said in its judgement delivered yesterday that President Lungu was currently serving his first term in office as his inherited tenure that run from January 25 2015 to September 2016 after the death of then incumbent president Micheal Sata could not be considered as a full term
The court relied on Article 106 (1) (6) stating that it was clear that any term below three years would not be counted as a full term.
It held that under the current constitution, article 106 the presidential term of office was five years and they should only be elected twice which brings it to 10 years but that it was also possible for a president to be in office for almost 13 years.
Constitutional Court president Hilda Chibomba sitting with six other judges of the court read the judgement.
The court noted that the circumstance in which President Lungu was elected into power were not provided for in the constitution but it was the duty of the court to interpret what the legislature would have done, had they had the situation in mind.
“It could not have been the legislature’s intention not to include the incumbent’s situation. However, it is the responsibility of the courts to interpret what the legislature would have done had they had the situation in mind.
“We are of the view that the term of office must be considered so as to determine what twice held office means. The appropriate step to take in interpreting Article 106, in our view is that a president who served from January 25 2015 to September 2016 and straddled two regimes cannot be considered to have held a full term,” Judge Chibomba said.
In this matter, four opposition leaders Daniel Pule (Christian Democratic Party), Wright Musoma (Zambia Republican Party), Robert Mwanza (Citizens Democratic Party), and Peter Chanda (New Congress Party) petitioned the Constitutional Court to interpret whether President Lungu was eligible.
They wanted 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.
They cited Attorney General Likando Kalaluka as the respondent in the matter.
PF Secretary General Davis Mwila joined as the respondent while the Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) and the UPND joined as interested parties.
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.
Meanwhile LAZ and the UPND opposed the eligibility, basing their majority 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.”
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.