Zambia elections: Lungu’s inauguration will be illegal, UPND has not accepted the court decision

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Hakainde Hichilema

Losing opposition candidate Hakainde Hichilema has maintained that the UPND has not accepted the decision taken by the Constitutional Court to dismiss its election petition.

Out of five Judges of the court, two wanted the case to proceed while three ruled that the matter could not be heard as the mandate of the court expired last Friday at midnight.

But Mr Hichilema said the UPND petition was dismissed by three mischievous judges.

He said the planned in inauguration of President-Elect Edgar Lungu at Lusaka’s Heroes Stadium next Tuesday is illegal.

“That is illegal inauguration, it is against the constitution because we have not been heard. We are going to the High Court because as you may know in the so called ruling, the president of the Constitutional Court objected to what the three judges did. She not alone, another judge Munalula also dismissed it that was mischievous.”

Hakainde Hichilema
Hakainde Hichilema against Lung’s victory.

He added: “The point is the president of the Constitutional Court has ridiculed what they tried to do today and she was not alone.”

Mr Hichilema said the right to be heard is part of the Bill of Rights and because of the different interpretation of this 14 days hearing, and not determination the High Court has the jurisdiction to interpret that our fundamental right to be heart has been violated.

“The petition was not heard, they decided without being heard. It is like a murder accused today is sentenced today without being charged. That is what has happened,” Mr Hichilema said.

Mr Hichilema said the Constitutional Court was in a confused state having made several conflicting rulings during the hearing.

“The court is in a confused state, they basically put us in a constitutional crisis. By the way two days ago, a full bench of judges of the Constitutional Court ruled that the petition will commence on Monday and will run up to Thursday,” he said.

“The full bench of five judges ruled and then today we go to court, three judges appear in court and indicate that they have changed their minds and they have a contrary ruling and they are the majority. They cannot be the majority because the full bench on Friday and ruled that the petition commences today. The petition has already commenced, we have not been heard, and we have been denied the right to be heard.”

He said that the court should have shown direction over the conflict on the 14 days threshold that finally undid his court challenge.-Lusaka Times. 6 Sept 2016

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2 Comments

  1. Losers are like that alwalys complaining,its hard to accept defeat, even here in Malawi we have our losers ,they have been complaining since 1994 .

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