CONCOURT’S VERDICT

THE Constitutional Court has put to rest one of the most divisive issues in the nation’s political landscape – the eligibility of President Edgar Lungu to contest the presidential elections in 2021. Yesterday, the ConCourt delivered its long and eagerly awaited ruling that President Lungu is eligible to contest the 2021 presidential election. Constitutional Court president Hilda Chibomba sitting with six other judges of the court read the judgement. The court said in its judgement 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 Michael Sata could not be considered as a full term. In arriving at its ruling, 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 regime of the 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. 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 or not. 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. Patriotic Front Secretary General Davis Mwila joined as the respondent while the Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) and the United Party for National Development (UPND) joined as interested parties. LAZ and the UPND opposed, 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.” Said Judge Chibomba during the ruling: “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.” From the very beginning, this was an interesting case given that the political stakeholders could not agree on whether President Lungu, after taking over and completing Mr Sata’s presidential term could be deemed to have served a presidential term. That a section of Zambians opted to go the constitutional way, taking the issue to the courts of law, is a plus for Zambia for which Zambians ought to be proud of. And as expected with such contentious cases, the reaction to the ruling is mixed depending on which side of the political divide one is. Even then, what is important is that an independent institution that Zambians themselves have established has been able to settle the argument between the contending parties. The catchword now is to move forward and get down to work – the business of developing the nation. There are no victors or vanquished following the ConCourt’s ruling. It is a victory for the nation having proved once again that Zambians can resolve their differences peacefully – however contentious. Yes, opinions and reactions will continue to reverberate within the nation but let this be done within the law. There should be no any name calling. Zambians should heed the advice of one independence struggle icon, Sikota Wina that it is now time for everyone, including the opposition to support the government of the day in delivering development to the people of Zambia. He said the ConCourt’s ruling was an indicator of the continuity of democracy that Zambia had enjoyed over the years. And as Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia executive director Pukuta Mwanza noted, Zambians must develop the culture of respecting court’s judgements. “There is no need for someone to discredit the court because they feel the judgement has gone against personal expectations, once we develop the culture of respecting the court, then it will be better for us than to be discrediting the court outcome every time it goes against our expectations,” Reverend Mwanza said. The bottom line is that Zambia’s democracy has been strengthened.