Thu, 12 Jan 2017 12:04:44 +0000
… President Lungu just started first term, is entitled
to another
HAKAINDE Hichilema and his UPND are mischievously misinterpreting the Constitution on the eligibility of President Edgar Lungu to run for presidency in the 2021 general elections because they are more than sure that the Head of State remains the strongest obstacle to their desire to form the next government, Makebi Zulu has charged.
And Mr Zulu has advised Mr Hichilema and the UPND to avoid misleading Zambians because the Head of State had just began his first term following his election in the last general elections.
Mr Zulu, who is Eastern Province Minister and Malambo Patriotic Front (PF) member of Parliament, said Mr Hichilema and the UPND leadership were creating a political hullabaloo over the Constitution by misinforming citizens that President Lungu would be running for a third term if he contested the presidency in the next general elections.
Mr Zulu, a prominent and astute lawyer, said there would be no breach of the Constitution should President Lungu be adopted by the PF to contest the presidency in 2021 because the Head of State had just commenced his first term as per the current and repealed Constitution.
He said President Lungu’s candidature in the 2021 general elections would not constitute a third term because the definition of a term according to the amended Constitution was three years and above.
He explained that the Constitution dictates that if one was President for less than three years, it is considered that he or she would not have served a presidential term.
Mr Zulu said it was expected for the UPND and its allies to create political hullabaloo on the miscued belief that it would give them some political pedestal to leap over the PF and assume the
governance of the country. “Should President Lungu decide to seek re-election as President in the 2021 general elections, that would not constitute a third term for him. The definition of a presidential term under our repealed law is three years and above. If one is President and has served for less than three years that does not constitute a term.
“Mr Hichilema and the UPND are deliberately and politically misguiding Zambians in their interpretation of the law and they are using the 1996 Constitution which has since been repealed. So, Zambians should be told that the Constitution they chose for themselves makes President Lungu eligible to seek re-election in the 2021 general elections if he so wishes,” Mr Zulu said.
Mr Zulu said that there was no constitutional doubt that President Lungu had just started his first term and was rightly entitled to another term even if he had been elected twice as republican President.
“The Constitution does not say a person who has been elected twice to the office of President is ineligible to run for presidency but it states that one who has held the position of President twice would have served two terms. And let the UPND and Mr Hichilema avoid misleading Zambians that President Lungu was completing Mr Sata’s term because a presidential term is above three years,” Mr Zulu said.
