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FODEP reacts to Sunday Chanda’s statement on Mulenga Sata

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FODEP Executive Director McDonald Chipenzi
FODEP Executive Director McDonald Chipenzi

FOUNDATION FOR DEMOCRATIC PROCESS

PRESS STATEMENT

FODEP’S REACTION TO MR. SUNDAY CHANDA OF PF’S DEFENCE OF MR. MULENGA SATA’S NOMINATION AS MP DESPITE BEING A PARTICIPANT IN 2011 GENERAL ELECTIONS

July 6, 2015- Following Mr. Chanda’s defence of the appointment of Mr. Mulenga Sata as Deputy Minister at State House despite him being a candidate in the 2011 election in alleged contravention of the provision of Article 68 (3) of the current constitution, FODEP would seek the legal opinions of the Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) and the Attorney General of the Republic of Zambia.

FODEP however wishes to request Mr. Chanda to provide to the nation the provision in the constitution that states that only parliamentary losing candidates are ineligible for presidential nomination to the National Assembly of Zambia and not winning candidates at Local government level.

Article 68 (3), clearly states “A person may not be nominated as a nominated member if he was candidate for election in the last preceding general election or in any subsequent by-election.”

The constitution just states “candidate for election in the last preceding general election or any subsequent by-election” and it does not discriminate whether one was candidate for election at local government, parliamentary or indeed presidential elections to be ineligible for nomination.

Further the constitution does not state that one must be a parliamentary losing candidate to be ineligible for nomination or indeed a winning candidate at ward level to be eligible.

It is a known fact that Mr. Mulenga Sata was candidate in the 2011 elections at ward level and won the Kabulonga Ward seat in an election which preceded his appointment to the position of Deputy Minister at State House and Nomination as member of the National Assembly of Zambia.

He is still a serving councilor at the Lusaka City Council a position he has not relinquished even after being appointed Deputy Minister at State House and nominated Member of Parliament.

Even if he was to relinquish his position, the cited article does not qualify him to be a nominated parliamentarian due to his participation in the preceding general election. This is the first time in the recent history of this country where a serving councillor is nominated to serve as MP representing a ward in Parliament.

The Article 68 (3) does not mention losing parliamentary candidate only which Mr. Chanda wants to introduce in the Constitution. He should not politicize even a straightforward issue which requires serious rectification from the authorities, in case it was an oversight on their part. It is FODEP’s considered challenge to Mr. Chanda to inform the nation which Article in the constitution states that only losing parliamentary candidates are ineligible to be nominated as MPs in the National Assembly of Zambia.

This level of competence in ignorance by Mr. Chanda is extremely amazing and PF should be worry of such elements in their ranks and file. Mr. Chanda is not a Government Spokesperson or indeed legal advisor to the Government or State House spokesperson to start responding to government related issues.

McDonald Chipenzi
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

23 COMMENTS

  1. There is “may” in the said article. My only problem with FODEP is membership. Seems like there is only one member who does almost everything and they claim to promote democracy. How??

    • PF ‘s Lies

      More money in your pocket. Reality; far less money in your pocket as the kwacha falls in value coupled with the wage freeze.

      Load shedding will be a thing of the past. Reality;more load shedding being justified by vision less Lungu’s minions.

      No more fuel shortages. Reality; rampant fuel shortage of very expensive fuel.

      Subsidies removed to fund infrastructural projects. Reality; money saved including money borrowed all stolen and used to boost top PF members ‘s personal accounts abroad.

      Lungu told the nation he had no vision of his own. Reality; he was absolutely right as things have gotten worse under his visionless leadership.

      Zambia under PF is lost in the wilderness. Only UPND and HH can reverse the economic destruction caused by PF ‘s poor…

    • @ jesus

      The matter to which Mr. Chipenzi is referring does NOT raise issue of FODEP membership. The matter is related to the Constitutional Provision and or interpretation of that specific provision, i.e., Article 68(3).

      Therefore, please comment on the issue and not on the messenger or his political affiliation.

      After all, no body, being that Mr. Chipenzi or Mr. Chanda or PF or FODEP or you or me or H.E. the President of the Republic is above Constitution of the Republic of Zambia.

      Thanks

    • This is plain and simple. If you take part in a General Election, you cannot be appointed as a nominated MP. What was the purpose of this section? What would change if we scrapped it?
      68 (3) A person may not be appointed as a nominated member if he was candidate for election in the last preceding general election or in any subsequent by-election.

    • Quote: “…candidate for election in the last preceding GENERAL ELECTIONS or in any subsequent by-election.”

      McDonald Chipenzi, when did LOCAL ELECTIONS become GENERAL ELECTIONS? They may be held on the same date, but like Chanda has told you, the two are NOT governed by the same statute or Constitutional clause. For goodness sake, the ambiguity of article 68(3) is unfortunate, but I thinking you are simply trying too hard to stretch the interpretation of this clause.

      There is what is called “INTENT” or “SPIRIT” of any given law. So, even to us non lawyers it is clear that the INTENT/SPIRIT of article 68 (3) was to prevent losing MP candidates to get to Parliament through the backdoor by being nominated. LPM already set the precedence by Nevers Mumba’s appointment!

  2. Such a constitutional contradiction can be taken advantage of by those in power. So it implies Mulenga Sata is a councillor, MP and deputy minister at the same time? Amazing. I concur, the debate can go on.

    • In my opinion, you can not be nominated on the same position that you had participated for in the previous election. Never Mumba lost the presidency but was appointed as vice president

  3. Please Mcdonald, you have made your point and let it be debated without you reacting to every opposing view. My view is that you are sincerely wrong on this one, General Elections are not the same as Local Government Elections; until in recent times these two categories of elections were held at different times under different laws; description & term of office for councilors or civic leaders has no connection to parliamentary or presidential elections. When you lose this debate, you should consider resigning from FODEP because unlike your predecessors, e.g Elija Rubvuta, you would have exhibited highly rudemental knowledge of governance. Again, just wait for LAZ to weigh in on your debate or you could file a petition in court instead of making yourself sound more & more ignorant

    • @Dickleburg, let competent constitutional layers or the supreme court deal with the issue. It’s in the constitution & you can’t have every Jim & jack and Jameson interpret it to their understanding. If Jameson was drunk at the time of the appointment it should be corrected. Chipenzi should be given credit for finding this out and should not be vilified for bringing out the short comings in one Jameson.

  4. Chipenzi please spare us from this nonsense. The said article is useless and must be scraped off from the laws of Zambia because it is NOT SPECIFIC, I wonder why the Zambian laws are all ambiguous left to speculation. This useless article can go either way cos its not specific. Thus Lungu can be right or you Chimpenzi can be right. Please let us make specific laws not these ambiguous laws we have which enrich lawyers as they argue over the laws which themselves made. Shame on us . The article should read;

    ” No person who participated in parliamentary or ward elections shall be nominated as member of parliament in the same term elections took place”.

    Chimpenzi can you see that this is specific? Not the useless article you are referring to.

  5. Iwe ci Chipenzi, you UPND cadre, just direct your energies in campaigning for your minority party in Southern province, basi! You bore most of us with your cheap and meaningless antics.

  6. Dull Executive Director! The problem is that he is using his surname to think and not his brain. The constitution is very clear and it talks about a losing candidate in a parliamentary election as ineligible to be nominated as an Mp and Mulenga Sata was neither a losing parliamentary candidate nor a losing councillor. This dullness from lone individuals masquerading as champions of democracy is worrying. Mr Chipeenzi if you want legal advise come to me than waste LAZ’s time on a simple issue for a grade 7. Ask those who petitioned the nomination of Nervous Mumba, they lost because Nervous didn’t participate as a parliamentary but as presidential candidate. Stop exposing your incompentence and ignorance!

  7. Iwe chipenzi chakuvuta niciani?u are just megaphone and a cadre for UPND.Stop your nonsense kawalala iwe!u cant talk about real issues other than mulenga sata.Of what benefit do this issue has to Zambians?

  8. First and foremost Mulenga is no longer councillor. 2nd one of our best legal brains SC. Mwanawasa tore this piece of nonsense by emphasizing on the word MAY. LAZ failed to pin him down and told them to check their dictionary what the word MAY MEANS. I assume someone there didn’t expect Mulenga to be a minister

  9. @ MB They are not verbatim quotes but legal opinion and facts based on Artical 68(3) of the constitution cited by this dull Exec Director of FODEP, and other Laws governing elections in Zambia.

    It takes little,if at all legal education is what Chipenzi needs to understand that atleast in Zambia, (not sure about in Jupiter) Parliamentary elections are conducted under articals 64, 65, 66 & 67 of the Constitution while Local Government elections are held under an act of parliament, called the Local government Act. So if you say that Mulenga Sata was a candidate in the general election, then you should ask yourself whether he was a candidate under the above Articals or the Act of parliament!

    What this so called Exec Director (ignorantly runing a critical organ of governance), is…

  10. When you read most of the blogs above you realize how poor our education is. We think because we own a big Chinese phone, we can type at a speed of one letter per minute, we can use a fake name, then we can insult.
    Discourse on platforms like this are supposed to enrich our knowledge.
    If you don’t agree with Mcdonald counter his opinion, don’t insult him.
    It doesn’t matter whether one is PF, UPND, Atheist, Monotheist, Heterosexual, Homosexual the moment we lose the power to engage and debate we lose our Humanity and we become beasts.

    • You are spot on. Its sad how low we descend as people to begin to bring in political colourations on an issue like this one.Platforms like this are really supposed to be used for critical anaysis of ideas and views unlike what others hasten to do here.

  11. What did Fodep say when MMD adopted Mulashikwanda in 2008???. Fodep is turning into a noise making organ.

  12. It’s like PF will bring Zambia into Greek crisis. Nkongole zapakisa. Rome was not built in one day. Mulenga’ issue is in the mind of Lungu. Lungu is a minister of Defense, deputy minister, Chief soldier of armed force and Chief Commander for all armed forces.
    He is the small Idi Amin Dada of Zambia in the country where people do not see. What is he afraid of for not coming up with defense Minister? He can not be a president and a Minister at once. Our law states that when on is aspiring for Presidency or other political position, he must resign from the current position but not the case with Lungu.

  13. I wish to advise pf and upnd supporters to mind their language becouse some of you scare those who are neutral. I mean you comment scares some people to join your party

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