Fri, 16 Jun 2017 13:12:16 +0000
By SIMON MUNTEMBA AND CHITE MTONGA
THE UPND is seriously disillusioned and dancing on a slippery slope if it is thinking that the Constitutional Court did not recognise Edgar Lungu as a validly elected President as required by the Constitution, Patriotic Front (PF) media director Sunday Chanda has charged.
Mr Chanda was reacting to the opposition UPND Spokesperson Charles Kakoma who had alleged that the Constitutional Court did not recognize President Edgar Lungu as a validly elected as required by the Constitution, instead the Court only threw out the UPND petition.
In a statement yesterday, Mr Chanda said nowhere does the Constitution require the Constitutional Court to recognise the President upon hearing of a presidential petition.
He noted that the Constitution merely obliges the Court after hearing a petition to declare the election of the President-elect valid or nullify the election.
He, however, said the power could only be exercised if a petition was successfully prosecuted before the Court.
Mr Chanda added, “The UPND failed to prosecute the petition within the prescribed time and the Constitutional Court decreed that there is no petition to be heard before this Court as at today.
“So, by what stretch of imagination does Charles Kakoma expect the Constitutional Court to have upheld or invalidated the election when there was no petition before the Court owing to the UPND’s own lamentable failure to prosecute the petition within the prescribed time?
“UPND Spokesperson Charles Kakoma is seriously disillusioned and if that is the thinking within the opposition party, then they are dancing on a slippery slope,” said Mr Chanda.
“His disillusion is further amplified by his own self-contradictory assertions that there is no law which compels citizens to recognise the President in Zambia,” he said.
And Mr Chanda offered what he called some ‘constitutional education’ to Mr Kakoma over the misconduct of MPs in Parliament probably referring to suspended UPND MPs.
“On the constitutionality of the suspension of the UPND MPs, we wish to educate Kakoma that there is nothing in the Constitution that immunises misconduct of MPs in the house.
“The Constitution in Article 77 of the Constitution empowers the National Assembly to regulate its own procedure and make Standing Orders for the conduct of its business and Section 28 (2) of the National Assembly (Powers and Privileges) Act provides that:
“Where a member is found to have committed contempt of the Assembly of a serious nature and none of the other penalties are sufficient for the contempt committed by the member, the Speaker shall, on the resolution of the Assembly, suspend the member from the Assembly for a period not exceeding thirty days,” he stated.
Mr Chanda said pursuant to the above provisions, there was nothing unconstitutional about the punishment meted out to the contemptuous UPND MPs.
