Eligibility of the incumbent Republican President His Excellency, Dr Edgar Lungu
Onbehalf of Movement for promoting National values and principles (MPNVP) an organization constituted as a conduit in actualizing the National Values and Principles of our Country among them matters to do with the Constitution, I wish to take this opportunity of clarifying over the subject that has engulfed social media and the general public concerning the eligibility of our Current president whether he is qualified to be on the ballot papers in 2021 as a presidential candidate.
While we appreciate the fact that in a democracy, citizens are free to express themselves on important National issues, we wish to refer our fellow citizens to article number 106 section (6) (b) of our Constitution of Zambia which discusses qualifications of a presidential candidate in Zambia.
Due to misunderstandings and different interpretations of the same article, Christian Democratic Party leader Daniel Pule, Zambia Revolutionary Party leader Wright Musoma, Peter Chanda of the New Congress Party and Citizen Democratic Party Leader Robert Mwanza petitioned the Constitutional Court over the matter.
The applicants sued for two reasons; (1) They sought the guidance of the Court on interpretation of what constitutes a term and (2) They asked for the Constitutional court to establish the eligibility of the president who serves for less than 5 years whether he qualifies to file in papers as a Candidate in 2021.
The matter came up for Judgement before Constitutional Court President Justice Judith Chibomba and Judges Anne Sitali, Mungeni Mulenga, Palan Mulonda, Enock Mulembe, Professor Margaret Munalula and Martin
Musaluke on Friday December 7, 2018.
The Constitutional Court before passing the Judgement took time to warn and reprimanded the general public about unwarranted comments and remarks meant to distract and influence the judges from performing their duties or else such individuals did that at their own peril and risked being cited for contempt.
The Constitutional Court in its judgement guided that President Lungu assumed office as Republican President from January 2015 to September 2016 cumulatively that covered a period of 19 solid Months. According to the Judgement of the Constitutional Court, a full term referred to in article number 106 of the Constitution of Zambia mean 'A PERIOD NOT LESS THAN 3 YEARS.' It therefore meant that since President Lungu only served for a year and 7 months in office, that did not amount to a full term hence couldn't qualify the period to have been served. It was stated that under article number 106 section (6) (b) it became clear that one could occupy the office of presidency for up to 3 years or less and the other two full terms of 5 years each meaning that the President can be in office for a total of almost 13 years as long as it does not exceed 13 years and would still be in conformity to article 106.
As an organization that has taken interest in helping people understand, grasp and comprehend contents of the Constitution, we noted that the Constitutional Court avoided not to misdirect itself by making inferences to other articles. Sub article 106 therefore could not be understood in isolation from each other. When interpreting article number 106, some references were drawn from other articles and clauses.
The Constitutional Court also noted what looked to be Lacuna's in that the legislature could not clearly state certain aspects clearly hence the need for drawing inferences and made necessary conclusions as to what could have been the intended purpose of the Law makers.
Regarding the second question on the eligibility of the president whether he could file in nomination papers as a candidate for 2021, the Constitutional Court ruled that the second question by applicants was 'ATIOSE'. The chose not to tackle it.
A research from Oxford Dictionary by MPNVP legal experts, we discovered that the word 'ATIOSE' imply irrelevant, unnecessary, a shear waste of time, archaic, indolent or idle. We understood that not necessarily did it mean that the Constitutional Court ignored the question nor that they were busy but that the second question was already covered from the first response. Having thoroughly covered the first question about the meaning of a word 'TERM' the Constitutional Court never wanted to waste time discussing the eligibility question since it was tackled in the first part.
In their concluding remarks, the Constitutional Court commended the applicants who pursued the matter with them and felt that all those aggrieved needed to seek address and clarification of such as compared to waiting until nomination of candidates started.
Having thoroughly looked at the Judgement of the Constitutional Court, Movement for promoting national values and principles in this case 'Movement for promoting Constitutional matters', we wish to have the debate over the eligibility of the President come to an end. We wish to warn sternly all those being used to agitate emotions among our peaceful citizens to immediately stop. May we respect our Judiciary and avoid politicizing serious matters in our Country!
We notice with sadness the extent some critics have reached of not only criticizing the eligibility of the President but questioning the Integrity of appointed Judicial system. Undoubtedly, this situation if unchecked can culminate into anarchy and breed conflicts and violence among our people's. Zambia is a peaceful country and we will not allow anyone who defiantly choose to disrespect the appointed authorities with impunity! We also notice that there is no connection between the eligibility of the president in the forthcoming elections and the recent failed bill 10.
Our desire and wish is to see politicians debate national issues and restrict themselves to what they have for the Zambian people. We would like to hear about the Manifestos of every political parties and that all politicians confine themselves to outlined guidelines as they go about their campaigns! Character assassination, name calling, sarcasm, tribal language and abusive speech must be avoided and condemned! Biasness and personal vendetta should not be heard among our peaceful citizens.
May we guard jealously our National Values and Principles! Joseck Kunda