The long-awaited judgement on the heavily disputed August 2016 Presidential election which has been petitioned in the Constitutional Court by the UPND will leave an indelible mark on the illustrious legal leacy of Chief Justice Irene Mambilima depending on which way she chooses to proceed to ‘Swear-in or not- swear in’ Mr. Edgar Chagwa Lungu.
Mrs. Mambilima is faced with what seems to be pressure from the PF to proceed with the inauguration of Mr. Lungu inspite not having satisfied the constutional requirement of hearing the UPND petition which was to argue and provide what is thought to be overwhelming evidence that Mr. Lungu lost the election to UPND’s Hakainde Hichilema, influenced largely by the pro-UPND voting pattern in the Lusaka constituencies of Kanyama, Chawama, Mandevu, Munali, Matero and Bauleni.
It is alleged that information leaked and was presented to Mr. Lungu sometime during Saturday 13th August, two days after election day and he thereafter made a decision to concede defeat and announce to the nation on Sunday 1th August, 2016.
But alas, when Mr. Lungu was about to concede, it is alleged that he was intercepted by a former president, a Zambian Ambassador to a country in the region and a chief cadre at State House and others, persuaded Mr. Lungu not to concede and asked for time to ‘work’ on the rusults. This explains the silence and delay from the ECZ to announce the Lusaka results which were coming from polling stations in close proximity to the ECZ totalling centre. ECZ Director-General Esau Chulu was at pains to explain the cause of the delay. The 2016 elections were held in the dry season and therefore the issue of logistical challenges related to weather which had been used as an excuse for delayed results in previous elections could now not hold. This raised tensions throughout the country and pressure was mounted on ECZ to begin announcing results. Surprisingly, they started announcing results of far-flung areas leaving Lusaka results which they only managed to announce at the of the end of the process.
It is believed that PF were in shock that even their pre-election rigging strategies failed to pull a positive result due to the overwhelming UPND showing that the only way was to start physically changing the results at the totalling centre by engaging a foreigner to access the computer server and manipulate the results at ECZ.
When even that failed to find enough votes to achieve a majority for the PF candidate, the last ditch attempt was to start unreasonably inflating results even in areas where the results for PF were higher than the number of registered voters.
The last ditch attempt was to stop the hearing of the petition at all costs, which is where the country finds itself right now, a path which has shocked local, regional and international bodies and legal commentators.
Our last appeal to Mr. Lungu is not to proceed with the inauguration on the basis of a stolen election as this shadow will never go away and may cause governance challenges which may never be overcome in the long run. Let him take a few steps backwards, back to his original position where he had decided to concede defeat peacefully and ignore those voices which came to push him not to concede so that he lives with a clear conscience.
The whole nation knows the former president in question is power hungry and wants to recover from his own failure to have results ‘doctored’ when it became clear that he had lost the 2011 election and now wishes to stay ‘in power’ through the back door perpetually. We appeal to Mr. Lungu to think of his new ‘Christian’ image. How will he proceed from here?
What about Justice Mambilima’s shining international legal legacy? Will all this be sacrificed? We say to Mr. Lungu, its not too late. Defend Zambia’s newly amended constitution, if not, which way Zambia?
DANTE SAUNDERS
CONCERNED CITIZEN
Aka noako kapuba. He is a fool
Sometime ago another UPND leader (bless his soul, he had the hall marks of a leader actually) cried foul. Later a PF leader (contested so many times it almost hurt) cried foul. This a new one but with extensions of the first test of our new institutions which surely do need some improvement in the way of who appoints, how the qualifications are vetted, etc. Other than that, time to inaugurate, time to move on, time to get back to the drawing board for a lot of things that have not quite gone as was anticipated…
An old man who’s chosen to economical with the truth by telling half truths. In short what you’re telling us is that Lungu colluded with the church mother bodies, UN observers, SADDC observers, EU observers, AU observers e.t.c to ensure that there PVTC tallied with the results ECZ was releasing. You’re the same old tired man who’s been in the forefront of chasing empty trucks alleging that they where carrying pre-marked ballot papers both in the 2015 & 2016 elections. You reasoning is as empty as those trucks you chased on suspicion of carrying pre-marked ballot papers.
I agree with this story.
UPND is what the MAJORITY voted for.
HH campaign, Lungu is 60 years of age.
By zambian standards, thats a ticking time bomb age
Thanks
BB2014
UPND you started this fight way before the elections by declaring that you would not accept the results. You went to declare Armageddon way before the elections, you shunned prayers way before the elections. You protested the Dubai printing of ballots way before the elections. What sort of stage do you think you were setting yourself for? You had a choice of Canisus or GBM but you chose GBM. Any truck you saw entering Zambia you suspected it to be carrying pre-marked ballots. After the results were declared all the observers international and local declared elections free and fair except you. All the courts ruled against you. ONLY 3 out of 10 provinces voted for you. SHOULD THIS NOT TELL YOU SOMETHING. Do an introspection and listen to your inner voice, SOMETHINGS YOU JUST LET GO, IT IS…
If you try to interfere with the inauguration program you will be arrested and the person/people who’s battles you are fighting they will be home drinking tea and sleeping on comfortable beds while you will be languishing in Police cells. BE WISE, BEHAVE YOURSELF, KEEP WAY. Why don’t the send their children or bululus to go and fight, why send other people’s children, husbands etc.
This Mushota, how effective is her reasoning? It looks like she is a dumping ground.
Some of the things said in this article border on liable.
this this is total lunacy. initially Hakainde was asking ECZ not to announce the Lusaka vote, he was delaying the announcement of the results. now you are saying they delayed the announcement so they could rig. And what point would ECL have conceded? Because he been leading almost most of the time the results were being announced. At this point I don’t care whether the elections were rigged or not. just want the country to move forward. From the way these lumpens are behaving I would rather have Lungu win through rigging that Hakainde legitimately voted in.
WHATEVER VOTED FOR WHO OR WHAT. IN THE END IT’S ECL WHO WON. PERIOD ! CAN WE CLOSE THIS USELESS CHAPTER NOW? IT’S SO BORING.
These are the kind of stories we hear in Kachasu and marijuana smoking circles. Saunders has sold his morals to the highest bidder. What a sore loser this man is together with his colleagues in UPND. Get a life
Mushota is slowly showing Schizophrenia Symptoms – she needs to see a doctor so that remedy can be initiated at an early stage.
As for Saunders these are former political giants from the archives; the former President he is talking about is Rupiah Bwezani Banda. But how foolish is Saunders??? How can RB ask Lungu not to accept defeat when he himself (RB) accepted his defeat to Michael Sata???
SAUNDERS, PLEASE GO BACK TO THE ARCHIVES SINCE YOU HAVE OUTLEAVED YOUR USEFULNESS. YOU CONCORT A STORY WITH LOTS OF DEMENTIA EMANATING FROM YOUR BRAIN. PLEASE GIVE ZAMBIANS A BREAK.
As soon as the inauguration is over all these guys need to be picked for questioning. They will need to provide their sources and evidence in full courts of law failure to which each one of them needs to be locked up for treason and insight.
So, they should not think that just because we are going forward with the inauguration, we have closed this chapter so they have the right to rant all they want. They better be lawyered up with all the evidence they are referring to in all their correspondences, otherwise kwasila baba!!!
This should be the first order of business so that people learn to only speak and write articles based on facts. Irresponsible and inflammatory remarks are bad for the peace of the citizenry … The smart people of the Zambian Enterprise deserve better
B R Mumba, Sr,
My younger sister, who is a part-time teacher at one of the schools in Maamba, which was a polling station told me that the ECZ was not in control there; it was all UPND in control. ECZ officials there were reporting to UPND officials. She told me that all of ECZ officials, especially those from outside the province, had absolutely no control at polling stations there. After inauguration of ECL, this must be thoroughly investigated. It’s UPND that rigged the elections, particularly in Southern province.
These are some of the statements from the article by Mr. Sanders
“Mrs. Mambilima is faced with what seems to be pressure….”
“It is alleged that information leaked…….”
“which was to argue and provide what is thought to be overwhelming evidence…”
“It is alleged that information leaked and was presented….”
Most of the statements from Mr. Sanders’ article are of this nature. These are simply hearsay, conjectures, and innuendos. And you expect the Chief Justice to have time to read such crap??? No substance at all. If yo want to be heard at least make an effort to be coherent.
These are the characters the police should pick after the inauguration so that they explain the irresponsible statements they are making. These border on undermining the peace of the country.
The statements are not irresponsible, if people are telling you they have evidence, and you prevent them from presenting that evidence. The least PF should have done if they are 100% confident, or sure that they had won the election was to let UPND present their evidence to the world. As long as they don’t do that, they will never be respected neither by the local community nor by the international community. That’s the way civilized countries who respect the rule of law work. Anybody with half a brain can see that something is wrong with what has happened with this petition. And remember, not all people concerned about justice getting done in this case are UPND cadres. It’s okay if PF won the election. But they have to win it legally. Let that get in your head. It’s important that a…
(Continued)… political party wins the election LEGALLY. Africa’s problems in general stem from lack of respect for the rule of law by politicians. That’s what causes most of the suffering we see in Africa, from starvation to diseases to armed conflicts. It’s politicians not respecting the rule of law. So yes if PF had won the election hands down, they should’ve confidently allowed UPND to present the evidence. And don’t bring up the argument that UPND had 14 days in which to present their evidence, and they failed. No they did not have 14 days. The hearing was deliberately DELAYED till the 14 days were almost over–that’s when it started. That’s part of the reasons why the ConCourt unanimously agreed to postpone the hearing to Monday through Thursday the following week. But…
(Continued)… something happened between Friday and Monday, God only knows what happened, which made three of the five judges, to sing a different tune on Monday, and declare that the petition hearing was over. Not only did they (contradict) walk back on their own earlier decision, but they appeared incredibly incompetent, and unprofessional, even to a lay person who knows nothing about how the legal process works. Had they insisted on Friday that the hearing was over, maybe they could’ve retained some respect, instead of collectively agreeing to continue the hearing the following week, then capriciously make a U-turn on Monday against their own decision. It’s this behavior that causes the rest of the world to keep laughing at Africa, telling us that we’re incapable of ruling…
(Continued)…ourselves. Most African politicians have no concept of fair play, justice, or respect for the rule of law. And if you want to keep supporting their blatant disregard for the rule of law, go ahead. But one day it may be your turn. When you are denied justice personally, then you’ll understand. Remember, if it can happen to others, it can for sure happen to you too.
You will keep hurting Mr. man
NEVERS MUMBA’S EXPIRY DATE:
NEVERS MUMBA LOST PASTORAL RELEVANCE WHILE STILL PREACHING – FOR IT WAS THEN THAT HE DECIDED TO JOIN POLITICS. UNFORTUNATELY (OR FORTUNATELY) THE PASSAGE OF TIME HAS CONSIGNED HIM TO POLITICAL IRRELEVANCE AS WELL. HIS CANADIAN OUTING AS ZAMBIAN AMBASSADOR IS ENGROSSED IN UNFAITHFULNESS – WE KNOW SOME MONIES WERE MISAPPROPRIATED. FROM CANADA, HE RETURNED A HERO TO RECLAIM A POSITION IN MDD AT A TIME THE PARTY WAS EXPERIENCING DWINDLING FORTUNES. HE WAS ENVISAGED AS THE ONLY ONE WHO WOULD TURN THE TREND AROUND AND PUT THE PARTY ON THE RIGHT FOOTING. HE APPEARED PROMISING BUT WITH HIM AT THE HELM OF THE PARTY, MMD SUFFERED THE WORST LEADERSHIP. UNWILLING TO HOLD A CONVENTION, KNOWING HE WAS NOT GOING TO RETAIN THE PRESIDENCY, HE HOPED ALL WOULD STILL GO IN HIS…
Iwe Sanders, stop lying to yourself and come back to senses that your HH was walloped pants down.
If indeed you had evidence to the rigging allegations, why didn’t you provide the same to the Concourt but opted the give 80 unsubstantiated grounds.
Come out of your slumber and tell you Hate Hate to concede defeat otherwise you are just a laughing stock.
continued…
STILL GO IN HIS FAVOUR BUT HE LOST THE PRESIDENCY TO A MORE POPULAR CONTENDER – FELIX MUTATI. TO DATE, HE STILL CLAIMS THE PRESIDENCY OF THE PARTY WHOSE STANDING HE HELPED DEMOLISH TO IT’S LOWEST. SEEING UPND AND HH AS EMANCIPATORS FROM POLITICAL REDUNDANCY, HE RALLIED BEHIND THEM THINKING A JOB WOULD SURELY COME HIS WAY. WITH REJECTION OF HH AND UPND BY THE ZAMBIANS, THE FORMER PASTOR GOT SHOCKED AS HE DID NOT BELIEVE THE OUTCOME- NO MATTER WHAT, IT HAD TO BE UPND WINNING THE ELECTIONS. THE FORMER PASTOR HAS NOW LOST BOTH WORLDS – PASTORAL AND POLITICAL.
Dream on old man, it is allowed to dream.
You are a waste of time. Who told you to campaign in southern, Western and Northern-
Western Africans only. Your MPS in Lksa are not complaining that they have failed the election. why are you complaining when you know that there was a good turn out of voters in these areas?
This under 5 party is now a security risk to our country. They have leaders who are bitter and continue issuing careless statements. Its high time these chaps shut up and move on with their lives. You were given a chance to present your facts before the ConCourt but alas you wasted all the time raising numerous issues and in the process lost time. The reality is that you had no facts hence your delay to present them before the court.
ECZ and concerned citizens are still awaiting evidence of a voter who cast their votes six times. Madam Mushipe please release evidence you claimed to have almost a month ago. This may just help to convince the people that perhaps UPND has evidence of rigging
otherwise I agree with TIZ who said it is almost impossible to rig elections in Zambia.
So why wasn’t this evidence presented in Court within the 14 days rather than all that circus you created for yourselves. Wake up and smell the coffee guy. Come back to reality and accept that your HH lost yet again…Period!
Our Father u need deliverance.
”But alas, when Mr. Lungu was about to concede, it is alleged that he was intercepted by a former president, a Zambian Ambassador to a country in the region and a chief cadre at State House and others, persuaded Mr. Lungu not to concede and asked for time to ‘work’ on the rusults”. So this is the ‘overwhelming’ evidence we have all along been waiting for? Fantastic!!
Imagine you take to court such crap as evidence
Dear Dean, unlike you I was part of the UPND team that managed the monitoring of election results nation wide. We organized using polling agents backed to be present during the counting of all ballots for the MP and President once the votes were tallied these where sent to us as the central tallying center. Recall also that from the printing of the ballots we had been closely looking our for any form of fraud. By midnight of the counting we began to get results which we were then posting to our President. Our first concern began when we noticed that our MPs were doing badly in areas we had hoped to gain mileage. When we first tried to halt the tallying we had results showing Edgar was leading. We quizzed our field officers they confirmed what were seeing was true so we went legal
madness of the highest order!!!!!! illusionists
Mushota quit being a cadre, its above your level.
SAUNDERS IS TALKING BULL ……
Even in parliament UPND is minority. Most of the independents MPs ( IF NOT ALL) were campaigning under the wings of ECL or PF. You want us to have a President from the OFFICIAL opposition in parliament. Only in your dreams my friend.
Yawn… sour grapes ba UPND. You should have presented your evidence in court but you concentrated on things which did not matter and …..bang….time up
Ooohooo.. Some one should immediately build a special psychiatric hospital for POST ELECTION TRAUMA especially for these UPND chaps. If Lungu had conceded defeat,many would have been disappointed bcoz he would have SUCCUMBED to TRIBAL RIGGING BY THE UPND. They chased away PF polling agents,connived with some ECZ officials and RIGGED the numbers ESPECIALLY IN SOUTHERN AND WESTERN! Saunders, results delayed in places you are mentioning bcoz you were making noise and throwing accusations. IF YOU KNEW for sure there was SOMETHING WRONG IN NAMED CONSTITUENCIES,WHY DIDN’T YOU GO STRAIGHT TO THE POINT IN THE PETITION?HOW COME PVT FROM OTHER MONITORS AGREED WITH ECZ??
stop bringing in upnd here. that’s why you lose sight of the argument, Saunders is a concerned citizen and argues from this stad point. Hee has argued and given points to justify his argument. The onus is on you to agree or disagree with what he has said instead of all the insults loaded in your brains bring out some sense as grown ups. lets hv a good debate without insults. we are all brothers and sisters in the end
@ Chills: We cannot eat these stupid debates mwaana! Time to move on!
His upnd why are you lying. During campaigns his gate at his residence was branded with upnd posters.
when you use terms like it is “alleged” then it means you are not sure. its difficult to believe allegations because they are rarely backed by facts. that were the problem is ba chills
Saunders or sandos whatever it is? it seams you are still dreaming please come to your senses and move on UPND lost. You are the same people who declared that you will not accept defeat and we have seen it so just go and celebrate the failed referendum which you won.
Kwena aka ka tata ka sonda kawele-wele. His narrative is so scattered, crude and incoherent; he touches so many things but without making a single point.The man is a shame to old age; old but not grown-up!
Analysis from tuma-umbrella twa pa Arcades Shopping Mall…
all pf mps have been find with a case to answer in short they are quilt and if you are guilt u r a criminal and when are a criminal you are not Honourable.
Mr HH worsting your time on earth instead of repenting.
wishes are wishes bane. you are free to wish for anything – but his excellency will be sworn in tomorrow.
And Ya,
I can testify that Elvis was seen with one of the stuffed ballot boxes. YAWN!! This story is becoming so boring. Can someone with a bit more imagination conjure up a more exciting story. How about Nethanyahou’s role in the whole farce and how Mossad sent their mole to the ECZ server room to distract from the real hacking and so on and so forth.
And those foreigners who registered as voters ….the list is endless and so is the Upnd imagination.
What happened to the ‘TRUCK FROM LUANGWA’ at St. Patricks School?
This man must be arrested, he is a terrible lair
This old man is a son of a pig. He is trying to mislead the masses about what he dreamed.
What is you are the grandchild of a hog? or a chimp or a canine? Most likely….yep
He’s reading too much from the ZWD. By the way ZWD has infiltrated my Face Book platform how do I get rid of it?
A lot of circumspect allegations based on wrong interpretations of events. Some of it such as allegation of ECL throwing in the towel and the work of RB, Emanuel Mwamba and I expect, Chama or Kambwili is pure fantasy, and inflammatory.
The only thing the Judiciary need to behold is the out of court contemptuous conduct of remarking on the case of the hearing in an effort to rally riots by UPND. That is enough to determine the frivolous and treasonous, Criminal nature of this petition and it’s intent to prevent gov’t taking seat. There has to be condemnation and jail for contempt and recommendation to try for Treason. Injunctions to prevent further court cases and dismissal of the less than desirable Legal team. Strongly worded judgement against HH must be made. He is a danger to…
Strongly worded judgement against HH must be made. He is a danger to Zambian society and gov’t. It’s clear this case was used to cause civil war.
Saunders or is it SONDASHI? Whatever happened to your party? Also, what happened to your so called NGO? Looks like you are no different from Nevers, GBM at the likes of the self professed lawyer retired general miyanda. You lot are failures that will always blame your failures in life on other people. Anything you touch, fails. What else need I say?
An ***** hu joined PF in 2010 and wen he was not given a job joined upnd.expired old fool.was in mmd to zadeco then to FDD then PF and now upnd.at one time the fool misrepresented himself as political analysist.z it difficult to just go to the farm.learn to be honest.so all observers were wrong except u and cow hh?
I’m now convinced we’re not dealing with normal people here! Unfortunately, this is no longer funny and is bordering on treason!
Delusional old man. How can he seriously believe what he just wrote?
I repeat: Analysis (actually tuma-stories) from tuma-umbrella twa pa Arcades Shopping Mall…
While other people become wiser as they get old, this particular one is suffering from senile dementia. Instead of taking his rantings seriously, the UPND leaders should get him the best medical attention they can afford.
I think its you who needs medical attention. How can you be blind to truth? Tell me, what would you have lost if the ConCot had allowed the upnd to present evidence? Why are you scared of evidence? How can you rejoice a stolen vote? Mark my words, as long as the Almighty God remains on the throne, those who have stolen the vote will not enjoy the loot. You may scoff at this, but time will shortly catch up.
Natubalekefye. We will rule very soon
I have never seen a place not even in hell where winners concede defeat. This old man is losing his brains too fast. You are the fools who are advising Ha Hi wrongly and giving him false hope. I now know why Ha Hi is stubborn like a devil!
I have heard so many unfounded and unsubstantiated accusations and claims of vote stealing and rigging. In all of this drama, created and perfected by the graduates of the Mushipe School of Drama, that is comparable only to that seen on blockbuster hollywood movies, one thing remains undeniably clear: it is certainly not my vote that was stolen because l did not vote for these people. Saunders must only speak about his one vote.
It’s ridiculous to say “the last ditch was to stop the hearing of the petition at all costs” when you had access to the court for two weeks _ 10 working days plus weekends to rethink your strategy. In fact you let the all nation down because we all wanted to hear your alleged ‘facts’. You wanted only two more days when you had had ten! Even those of us who had open minds now feel you are just bad losers. Who in his right mind can concede an election on the basis of the results of one province when results were still coming thru from all over?. We all know when Lusaka results came out becuase there were MP results too annouced at the polling stations when all tallying was done. So don’t lie to us they were counted early.After all it is the biggest constituency how could they’ve…
This freak Dante sanders is the human equivalent of a failed state
.
….finished counting earlier? Just how do you beat a party that has over half of the Parliament full? You think people voted PF MPs for HH? Do you think 3.5 regions can beat 6.5? Zambians vote along party lines from councillors to MPs and then the President. Yes you put up a commendable fight and you would’ve received a sympathy win in 2021 if you had not annoyed so many people with this megalomanic display of arrogance. By the way even Tasila Lungu won in Chawama! How could the father have lost Chawama?
Is this ***** a Zambian? Let him not use his bitterness, hate on ECL to mislead us Zambians, time for campaigning ended on August 11.How can a victor concede the defeat when one is declared the winner? Talk about the one that you know very well and now, he has entered into Zambian Guinness world of history as the ultimately 7 times failure of the opposition political party in Zambia.
But GBM’s daughter lost in Kasama Central her father ‘s own home! What does this tell you about the popularity of Team Lungu? Just concede. Badala! You lose some you win some! Better luck next time.
OPEN LETTER TO HIS EXCELLENCY RUPIAH BWEZANI BANDA,
MR PRESIDENT, HERE IS SOMEONE DANGLING FREE MONEY TO YOU. THIS STUPID CALOURED IS WRITING ABOUT YOU BECAUSE YOU ARE THE ONLY FORMER PRESIDENT WHO STOOD AND LOST THE GENERAL ELECTION IN 2011. IS THIS FOOL CORRECT TO IMPUTE THAT YOU NOW WANT TO COME BACK AND RULE
ZAMBIA THROUGH THE BACK DOOR? HE HAS EVEN GIVEN HIS NAME AT THE END OF THIS ARTICLE.
ITS TIME TEAM EDGAR LUNGU STARTED TAKING SUCH FOUL MOUTHED CHEAP PUBLICITY SEEKING FINISHED POLITICIANS TO COURT.
Losers keep on dreaming! It is called a delusion!
Remember we use Pvt so results start at the constituency level before they reach Mulungushi. Copies of results are posted at the polling stations and your agents were there. HH confirmed that you took photocopied Gen 12 to all polling stations in Lusaka which were later rejected by Ecz. This clearly says you had access to all polling stations without harrasment and you had your agents working there freely. Which figures did they send you? You had people in the verification room and in the announcement hall. None of them challenged any figure. You were even in Dubai!
SIR DANTE,
YOUR LAME (ichilema) STORY HAS JUST TOLD US THAT A RIGGING STORY REQUIRES BETTER BRAINS THAN DEFECTIVE LAME SICK IMAGINATION WHICH IS AUTHORED AND MADE TO LOOK INTELLIGENT
hh of Radio Phoenix loves such stories , are you related ??
Iwe ci Saunders: call yourself by your correct title, UPND cadre, and not/never ‘concerned citizen’. The chips are really down for you, not so?
It’s GAME OVER! 2 Kwa 0 (2015 na 2016. Will be worse in 2021. HH you refused to be an Under-5! Waon a manner!