Seven Judges Preside Over Lungu 2021 Ruling

A panel of seven judges of the Constitutional Court has been constituted to preside over the matter in which a ruling on President Edgar Lungu’s eligibility for the 2021 presidential elections is sought.

The Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) and the opposition UPND are among those to charges that the president will not qualify to recontest in 2021. LAZ is the first interested party and the UPND is the second interest party.

LAZ lawyer John Sangwa set out the following arguments to the judges on Tuesday this week: “The applicants application ought to fail on merit that President Lungu is not eligible to contest the election of 2021 because he has already been elected twice to the office of President. The circumstance in which President Lungu first assumed the office of President is not covered by Article 106(3) of the Constitution.”

“Article 106(6) [of the] Constitution does not have a retroactive effect: it cannot operate to cover the period effective January 2015, when President Lungu was first elected. The circumstance in which President Lungu first assumed the office of President is not covered by article 106(5) of the constitution,” he continued.

“The application ought to fail with costs for being totally misconceived and being utterly bereft of any merit. In a nutshell, any attempt by President Lungu to go for a third term will not only be illegal but also unconstitutional and indeed undemocratic in the extreme,” added the UPND lawyers from C L Mundie and company and Malambo and company.

The lawyers of Daniel Pule, who raised the case alongside three other opposition political party leaders alleged to be acting on the PF’s part, thereafter asked for an adjournment to study the submissions and the matter was adjourned until May 7th.