Friday, March 29, 2024

Charlotte Scott complains over slow pace of Mwanakatwe’s appeal case

Share

 

United Party for National Development (UPND) Lusaka Central parliamentary candidate in the 2016 general elections Charlotte Scott says the process of hearing the appeal case brought by PF’s Margaret Mwanakatwe is taking too long.

On 24th November, the Lusaka High Court ruled that Mrs Mwanakatwe’s election victory was fraudulent after Dr Scott petitioned the results.

Mrs Mwanakatwe however rushed to the Constitutional Court and appealed the verdict and 22nd February was set as the date for the Con Court to hear Mrs Mwanakatwe’s appeal.

But shortly before that, it was announced that the ConCourt was not going to hear any cases at all for month of February without stating any reasons.

The new dates have not been announced yet and Dr Scott is now feeling the frustration.

“I know it’s complicated and slow. Meantime, I am confident that my case was very strong, and that in the end we will pull through. Without a fair election process, Zambia is not going to enjoy the fruits of democracy and free speech,” she said.

She added, “People have been asking about the status of the petition for the parliamentary election in Lusaka Central. This is my understanding, although of course everyone knows I am not a lawyer.”

“On 24th November, the High Court ruled in my favour, and upheld my petition. The grounds that were upheld included corrupt acts, violence, misuse of Government resources, discrimination, and the fact that the police prevented me from campaigning freely.”

She added, “My opponent immediately announced that she would appeal, and applied for a stay of execution – that is, a ruling to say that she could stay in the seat while the appeal was heard.”

“The High Court disagreed, saying she should not be in Parliament. She took that issue to the Constitutional Court, where a single judge reversed the decision on this issue. We have appealed to the full ConCourt bench, arguing that the seat should be vacated until the case is resolved.”

 

18 COMMENTS

  1. What we have in Zambia is not democracy but a bad immitation of it. It’s child’s play with a leadership that sees nothing wrong with electral mulpractice and supports corrupt elements by rewarding them with top positions.

    • These constitutional court judges did not work the all of February but they got paid.

  2. ConCourt judges are now scared of cases since they messed up alot of things last year. They should resign on moral grounds and let’s have judges from the Supreme Court take over the ConCourt. Gen Miyanda’s case is still incomplete,Minister’s refund case went back 2 ConCourt. Its the simplest case but they caught inbetween. The minister’s refund of allowances shud b thrown bcoz the ruling of the ConCourt is final and not appellable

  3. There’re cases that have been dragging on since the Mwanawasa days so what’s so special about this case? What about Liteta ‘s case? How long has it taken. If this is not harrassment of the judiciary then what’s it?

  4. There is some thing curious about these MP Petition. It seems all the judgments on MPs Petition at the High Court and Concourt have been put on hold thru directives from the Powers that be. As soon as Ministers Mwanakatwe and Luo lost their MP seats there was panic within PF and Judgements at the High Court and Concourt to do with MPs have been frozen until further Notice. The 90 days deadline for by-elections have been ignored. Our Electoral Laws are being broken with impunity by the Illegitimate Lungu Govt. Our Constitutional Democracy is on trial and we wait to see how the powers that be want to deal with the Presidential Petition and these MP Petitions.

    • Mwanawasa did the same for the 16 PF “rebel ” MPs whose case dragged on until the end of their term. Did you complain?

    • @ Ndanje khakis no need of bringing Mwanawansa issues here. if Mwanawansa did some wrong things it is not an excuse for the current leadership to do the same it is like a son who commits a crime because the father did the same and use it as an excuse. Thinking in reverse gear indeed.

    • It’s ok for you to refer to mwanawasa when it suits you but wrong if others do so. There is no such thing as reverse thinking if there’s a point to be made. This Charlotte that you support could even be calling you kaffir in private.

  5. …ConCourt was established not only to attend to constitution matters but also to execute those queries in the quickest possible time….now if that’s what they call expeditiously…then we don’t need the concourt to stand out alone…

  6. Concourt is now just a mere Legal Dept at State House reporting directly to ECL. Whatever Lungu wants is attended to by Concourt on an Urgent Basis. There are numerous cases at Concourt which are pending becoz they don’t serve Lungu’s interests. Lungu wanted his 3rd Term Bid attended to and Concourt is already attending to it urgently. The Case relating to the Clause on Lungu handing over power to the Speaker of Parliament was filed last year but becoz it affects Lungu’s interests it is gathering dust on the Concourt shelves. Concourt is now a graveyard for cases which are not favourable to Lungu. Ever since Concourt made a mess of the UPND Petition the Justices are now tame to Lungu’s wishes. The Concourt Judges’ image and reputation is damaged goods and the Judges have no…

  7. Those *****s you refer to as Con court Judges will seat on all cases against the opposition until 2022. They are nothing but Lungu’s puppets.

  8. It’s sad seeing umusungu umwanakashi been troubled like this . Ndanje is a retarded buffoon. A silly attention seeker who I schooled before he ran off

Comments are closed.

Read more

Local News

Discover more from Lusaka Times-Zambia's Leading Online News Site - LusakaTimes.com

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading