Nullified MPs Drop Case Against Speaker’s Ban

A group of eight MPs, including former Lusaka Province Minister Bowman Lusambo, have dropped their appeal against National Assembly Speaker Nelly Mutti’s decision to bar MPs who have had their seats nullified from taking part in parliamentary business. 

The MPs were seeking to overturn Speaker Mutti’s decision last week via a judicial review at the Lusaka High Court. A panel of three judges, lead by Justice Gertrude Chawatama, were due to deliver their ruling yesterday, however the case has now been dropped. 

The eight Patriotic Front MPs have all had their seats nullified following court findings that their election campaigns were marred by violence and/or corruption. Mr Lusambo, for instance, was stripped of his Kabushi seat after the Ndola High Court found that his militia group, nicknamed the Nato Forces, carried out widespread acts of violence across the constituency. 

Lusambo was also found to have personal breached electoral laws on polling day by visiting a voting station at Liyuni Primary School and making the PF symbol of a clenched fist while voters were in the queue. 

Following yesterday’s decision to drop the case, one of the nullified MPs, Raphael Nakacinda, told PF supporters outside the courthouse that President Hakainde Hichilema had been summoning judges to his house in an effort to intimidate them. 

There is no evidence of this happening and Attorney General Mulilo Kabesha has filed an application to have Nakacinda written up for contempt of court.