— Opposition hail landmark court ruling

Opposition hail  landmark court ruling

Lusaka, July 03, 2014, ZANIS  —-  Opposition Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) has welcomed the supreme Court’s decree allowing opposition Members of Parliament(MP) whose seats were nullified can re-contest their seats.

Party National Secretary Muhabi Lungu says the  court ruling has been made in accordance to the constitution of Zambia as well as the Electoral Code of Conduct.

Mr Lungu says  that the rule of law has prevailed over the Petauke , Solwezi, Vubwi, Zambezi and Solwezi parliamentary seats which the ruling party had applied for an injunction to bar them from re contesting their seats.

He said the opposition has been vindicated adding that even the Electoral Commission(ECZ) of Zambia was ready to conduct the said parliament seats if the ruling party did not intervene using the courts of law.

ZANIS reports that the opposition party’s spokesperson said this in an interview in Lusaka, today.

 

Mr Lungu stated that the former ruling party will no doubt defend their seats when elections are held without any difficulties.

He said  his party is more likely to re-adopt their Members of Parliament whose seats were nullified.

Mr Lungu said former Solwezi Member of Parliament Lucky Mulusa and former Petauke MP Dora Siliya are still Members of the MMD despite having been stripped off their  party’s NEC position recently.

He said the party will no doubt re-adopt the two candidates because they are full paid up members of the former ruling party.

Meanwhile, former Zambezi Member of Parliament Charles Kakoma said the Supreme court interpreted the law accordingly.

Mr Kakoma , who is opposition United Party for National Development(UPND) Spokesperson said his party will humiliate their opponents during Zambezi West parliamentary by elections.

He said this is a lesson to those people who do not believe in democracy especially this time when politicians are playing modern politics as opposed to colonial politics.

He stated that UPND will do everything to defend their seat by all means to teach others a nice lesson which they will never forget.

Today, the Supreme Court made a landmark ruling that opposition MPs whose elections were nullified can re-contest their seats.

This is in a case where the ruling Patriotic Front had applied to bar some opposition MP whose elections were nullified on account of alleged electoral malpractices.

Delivering the landmark verdict this morning, Judge Gregory Phiri and Judge Mwanamwambwa who read the judgement on behalf of the full bench said all the MPs whose seats were nullified are free to re-contest.

This means that all the former MPs for Solwezi Central, Petauke Central, Mulobezi, Kasenengwa, Vubwi, Mkushi South, Zambezi West and Malambo constituencies are free to re-contest  their seats.

The full Supreme Court bench ruled that the state’s application to set aside the High Court’s ruling lacked merit.