ACCEPT LOSS, HH TOLD
… as Concourt tosses out election petition
HAKAINDE Hichilema should now find some closure and peace in his heart to move on from the 2016 Presidential election loss following the decision by the Constitutional Court to toss out his election petition, Patriotic front chairperson for women Jean Kapata has
advised.
Yesterday, the Constitutional Court threw out a case where Mr Hichilema was challenging President Edgar Lungu’s decision not to hand over power to the Speaker of the National Assembly during the hearing of the Presidential election petition in 2016.
Ms Kapata said that the UPND president’s legal advisors were deceiving him by not telling him to stand down on matters that were straight forward.
She said it was not surprising that Mr Hichilema’s case had been thrown out because the ground on which he was challenging the decision of President Lungu was baseless.
“How many times is Mr Hichilema going to run to the court over the 2016 election? We hope now he will find some closure ” said Ms Kapata.
Constitutional Court Judge professor Margaret Munalula said in her judgment yesterday that both President Lungu and the Speaker of the National Patrick Matibini could not be held to have been in contravention of any constitutional provision when the former continued to perform the executive functions of the office of Republican President during the impugned period.
Hichilema and his vice president then Geoffrey Mwamba, proceeded to move the Constitutional Court by filing a Presidential election petition on August 19, 2016 where they alleged that President Lungu was not validly elected and that certain provisions of the Constitution and other laws were not complied with.
The two also petitioned the court to order President Lungu to hand over powers to Speaker of the National Assembly Patrick Matibini pending the outcome of the petition.
Hichilema and Mwamba contended that the continued decision of President Lungu being in office while his election was petitioned was contrary to the provisions of Article 104 the Constitution.
But Attorney General Likando Kalaluka asked the court to dismiss the petition because Hichilema and Mwamba were not entitled to the remedies they were seeking.
He said Presidential election petition was dismissed on September 5, 2016 and President Lungu was sworn into office on September 13, 2016. President Lungu and not Dr Matibini performed the functions of the office of the Republic of Zambia.
The other judges that heard the matter are judges Anne Sitali, Mungeni Mulenga, Palan
Mulonda and Martin Musaluke.