CONCOURT CAN INTERPRET CONSTITUTION, SAYS SINKAMBA

By KELVIN SIABANA THE Green Party says there is no provision in the Constitution of Zambia or the Constitutional Court Act and Constitutional Court Rules which stops the Constitutional Court from interpreting any provision of the Constitution on its own motion.

Briefing the media in Kitwe on the decision by the Constitutional Court to adjourn sine die following a complaint submitted to the Judicial Complaints Commission (JCC) by some petitioners, Mr Sinkamba said the on-going acrimony over the eligibility of President Edgar Lungu to contest next elections is unnecessary.

Mr Sinkamba said that the acrimony can be brought to an abrupt end if the Constitutional Court decides to be proactive instead of being reactive.

“You see, there is no constitutional provision which bars the Constitutional Court to interpret any provision of the Constitution on its own motion, only restriction in the Constitution is that this court cannot deal with matters that are related to the Bill of Rights because such matters are in the meantime a preserve of the High Court and the Supreme Court," Mr Sinkamba said.

Mr Sinkamba said that Article 122 (1) explicitly states that in the exercise of the judicial authority, the Judiciary shall be subject only to the Constitution and the law and not to be sub- jected to the control or direction of a person or any authority.

“In this regard, submissions from petitioners on the interpretation of the Constitution are merely complimentary, they are not imperative whether or not petitioners make submissions on what they think is the interpretation of a particular provision of the constitution is neither here nor there,".

“We need quick closure to things that have potential to cause unnecessary acrimony in Zambia and the earlier the Concourt came to this realisation the better for the nation” Mr Sinkamba said.

Asked whether the recuse of the Judge President Hilda Chibomba was a factor, the Green Party leader said that it was not a factor at all because going by the current constitution of the Concourt, the Court currently has seven judges.

“You see, Article 129 (3) of the Constitution provides that the full bench of the Constitutional Court should be constituted by an uneven number of not less than five judges, so in this case, all the seven judges can agree to sit and constitute a full bench of seven judges.

The opposition leader said whether or not the Judge president is biased towards a particular opinion is immaterial because the decisions from the Concourt are about numbers because the majority will always take the day.