‘Respect ConCourt ruling on Lungu, G12’

ALL political players should respect the ruling of the Constitutional Court on President Edgar Lungu’s eligibility and Grade 12 qualifications for those eying political offices, the Citizens Democratic Party (CDP) has said.

CDP president Robert Mwanza, said political players and stakeholders should avoid opposing the court ruling when it is not in their favour.

Mr Mwanza said in an interview such action was detrimental to the democratic growth of the country because the courts were institutions put in place by the same people that were constantly opposing their judgement on national matters.

“The pronouncements by the courts should be abided by all, we can’t have a situation where every time there is an election politicians start to interpret it in the way that suits them, if we are going to cherry-pick then we are not doing justice to our democracy,” he said.

Mr Mwanza said it was unfortunate that some opposition political parties worked hard to shoot down Bill 10.

He said this has led to the country doing things in piece mill such as the delimitation of wards.

Mr Mwanza has urged political leaders to put the interests of the country before themselves because Zambia was bigger than any political party or leader.

“As political players, let's look at the bigger picture and not something that is just going to appease us, what the United Party For National Development did to Bill 10 was bad, it was unpatriotic,” he said.