The Constitutional Court is today expected to deliver judgement on whether President Edgar Lungu and Vice President Inonge Wina were lawfully sworn-in after the August 11, 2016 General elections.
The plaintiffs in the matter are United Party for National Development Leader Hakainde Hichilema and his subordinate Geoffrey Mwamba.
Mr. Hichilema and Mr. Mwamba have sought a determination whether President Lungu and Vice President Wina could be sworn-in without the declaration by the constitutional Court that the August 11, 2016 Presidential Elections were valid.
They have relied on articles 101 and 105 of the constitution.
In the originating summons filed in 2016 Mr. Mwamba sued President Lungu and Vice President Wina as first and second respondents respectively.
They have also sued Chief Justice Ireen Mambilima and Deputy Chief Justice Marvin Mwanamwambwa as third and fourth respondents respectively.
Mr. Mwamba filed the matter after the collapse of the August 11, 2016 Presidential Election Petition where they challenged the election results.
On September 5, 2016 the Constitutional Court dismissed the 2016 Presidential Elections Petition on technicality.
The court in its majority judgement ruled that the 14 days limit within which the petition was supposed to be heard had lapsed.
Lol. Awe suwa. Still fighting. President HH promised us that he wii continue speaking.
This is why we spend our time on challenges such as kupe, kiki and this crazy one of falling…. Watching these two hop in and out of courts is VERY boring
what can be expected?
Of course Lungu was lawfully sworn-in.
No one would want a bye election next month. Not even HH would want to risk that…
The ruling is unnecessary and predictable.
Thanks
BB2014,2016
HH & UPND are just exercising their rights as citizens. Those who are short-sighted will laugh at them now but our children’s children will appreciate this in many years to come. Let it be on record. Similarly the ConCourt and the rest of the current judicial system will be judged by their actions. Whatever goes up must come down.
of what use is this now ???
Waste of time. We all know what they will rule.
Ruling: The petitioners have failed to bring evidence that we were expected to declare the winner, that is the prerogative of the ECZ, as regards the constitutional requirement that the CJ swears in the President, by the power vested in the CJ to delegate even a frog can swear the President especially when they are doubts of biasness in humans. Animals don’t look at the consequences, in fact there are no consequences at all. The court therefore upholds the illegal swearing in and demand that the petitioners be cited for the contempt of the frog.
Can someone please make a statue of the most ugly person who attempted to destroy Zambian peace but failed? Please put this statue at Munda Wanga or Lusaka Museum. It will attract a lot of people from Monze.
The constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist, and shape into any form they please.
Thomas Jefferson
You couldn’t have put it any better. That is why we find law very confusing and unreliable. Sometimes I wonder why we are made to cathose guys in white wigs honorables
Done already as predicted by many Zambians. Zambia does not need this Court in its form only Kangaroos need it.
This under 5 party is a timer Easter. We are almost approaching the next elections and still fighting in court. Move on and start mobilising, you are just making your lawyers rich.
Zed, I agree time is being wasted but at times ” moving on” sets a bad precedence when such an issue comes up again in future. HH may not win the next elections but his actions now, may help streamline and strengthen our democracy in future which may most likely help those same pipo twisting it todayThat’s my view
HH & UPND are just exercising their rights as citizens. Those who are short-sighted will laugh at them now but our children’s children will appreciate this in many years to come. Let it be on record. Similarly the ConCourt and the rest of the current judicial system will be judged by their actions. Whatever goes up must come down.
Under Five is CHILDISH. He just can’t grow up.
Judges fear for their jobs and lives; the result is already known. What a bunch of cowards!
Courage the cowardly dog,
Edgar Lungu and Inonge Wina were sworn in on the basis that the Constitutional Court decided that there was no petition before it.
Nix, ECL and Mrs. Wina were sworn in on the basis of a majority vote and the losers failed to present evidence for their petition. Simple!!
It is UNELECTABLE.
Even the birds of the air already know the outcome of the judgment from an ‘oiled’ and ‘ 30 silver pieced’ judiciary. Even historical trends of the judgments coming from this house are not only a testimony of the ’30 pieces of silver’ that are at work, but also that the judgment will be in favour of plot 1. The birds of the air sang this judgment in the morning when the day arose.
We are still talking about 2016? I thought that next week the Courts shall be making a ruling on whether or not Edgar Lungu is eligible to stand again in 2021 because this is his second term? Trib.al Hacks, is this how nothing your reasoning has become?
Yeah let’s talk about the next election. 2016 is so yesterday
….God help us, is this the kind of reasoning that we expect from trib.al Hacks during the dialogue?
!mbecile, delay is due to the incompetence of your fellow !mbeciles scratching their filthy arses instead of working
,,,And trib.al Hacks will be at Court to receive the ruling? Zoona ni underfive uyu Trib.al Hacks!!!!
In as much as i do not expect anything out of this, i do not put the blame on the complainants but our judicially. some cases are better expedited. justice delayed is justice denied
I understand the reasoning behind H.H. and G.B.M still pursuing the course of Justice. If Justice is rendered ( whose probability of happening is 1%), then democracy, law and the nation wins. If Justice is not rendered as the “birds of the air” have already revealed this morning, the injustice and illegality shall be ON RECORD PLAINLY for future use and for posterity to learn from. Let dishonest men and women be driven to commit illegalities. These recorded illegalities may catch up with them one day.
This is the reasoning behind this. TO HAVE THESE ILLEGALITIES DOCUMENTED FORMALLY IN OPEN AIR. Wake up you bloggers!!!!
That’s what we call thinking, if you don’t question certain things then wrongs will start appearing to be correct…as a country just know you are finished
This is a foregone conclusion, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to fathom who is going to win. Corn court should be disbanded forthwith as it is a recipe for political expedience and a tool to disfranchise others. In this day and era, one would have thought that Africans can rule themselves instead of oppressing one another through the creation of toothless entities like this one. Just say it, we know the outcome already.
The Tom and Jerry story continues even after 3 years. One of the conditions given to both Edgar and HH on the release of of HH was that all charges leveled at HH should be dropped and likewise HH must drop all claims to the election “victory “. I know his supporters will rubbish this but it’s true.
HH and his UPND are jokers,What kind of POLITICAL ADVISORY TEAM DOES HH HAVE…? No wonder, UPND is loosing by – elections perpetual as a SIGNAL of poor leadership in the party. WHY PRESSING ON USELESS COURT PROCEEDINGS..? He plainly knows that CON – COURT is NOT ECZ which declares a WINNER of elections.
This is why we say that TONGAS / UPND in Serving as Judges in high court have made HH behaving like untamed ANIMAL . High court Judges are on political league with Con-Court Judges , such is a major reason HH is vomiting even nonsense which he believe that High court Judges are BETTER than Con – Court Judges.
Who has ever won such petition of presidency in Zambia, wasting time legacy chapwa Sata aleloleshafye and his time came bombeleni abantu ngalesa atemwa you rule but if God tasonta chalipwaaaaaaaa were do start from???
Yaw,still hoping to go to plot one
Thanks HH for taking the respectful and civilized route by going to court, the ruling however is Chodziwa dziwa.
Why should a former head of state be built a house by the tax payer. What nonsense is this surely. The guy was working like everybody else, minting a lot of money and house should be built for him? Why? I have researched around the world, I have not seen this grand shameful scheme. Absolute rubbish. If the person is responsible he must build his own house like anybody else and you even say the guy is our servant. NONSENSE!
Change the law.
You are focusing on the wrong things, focus on 2021 not water under the bridge
After reconciliation which was done incognito? We know the outcome
We have a broken Judiciary which does not follow the constitution but bend on what suits them by saying it lucks merit instead of interpreting what the constitution says.
Ask Cifire.
The passage of time does not make a crime right. A an unbiased judiciary would have ruled correctly than distort the history of jurisprudence with narrow – minded slanted partisan ruling to serve the interests of those who assume power through crooked means.
There was no problem swearing in the President at that juncture because the only issue that was at hand was a petition and once that petition was quashed, the swearing in had to go on automatically. The Constitutional Court’s job was to determine the merits of the petition and had not in any way taken over the role of declaring the President as winner of the election. Simple and straight forward. Please people let us move on. We cannot be in an election mood as country perpetually. No!
To me with a legal mind, a grieved party has a right to be heard by the Court of Law…When the Court pass the judgment, all party will respect it… that is the proper way to do things………..Not insulting the litigants, or Judges.
I love law because lawyers and opposing counsel will always be polite to one another even if they are representing their clients who are deadly enemies . ( eg divorcing couples).
Even cadres of different parties we represent………cadres can be fighting and we bring solution…
HH and Godfrey know the outcome of the deliberations. All they want is to set a precedence. It is for the sake of posterity. In future reference will be given to what is currently obtaining now. And people will judge on whether the courts ruling was fair or not
People that live for the day see this as a sheer waste of time. When elections are challenged, they have to be challenged to the very end. All avenues must be exhausted. And come what may. It will go on record.
No corruption here if you think independently. The case was a BID in the first place lawyer just wanted have a share of GBM leftovers from huge spending on his bit to be VIP even if it doesn’t suit him but merely riding on HH’ s popularity.
This is symplectic for every Judge And no need to be influence.
The case was not heared because the 14 fay given elapsed, their the court did not have patio but the throw out the petition.
because is was not heard their was no need for them to declare that Lungu was duly elected where their was no petition . By the way lungu was already declared winner by the returning office in the presidential election who is the chairperson of ecz according to the new constitution. The court only come in when there is a petition which act as a stay from…
By the way lungu was already declared winner by the returning office in the presidential election who is the chairperson of ecz according to the new constitution. The court only come in when there is a petition which act as a stay from proceeding to swear in the president elect. in this case their was no petition because it failed at law. when the petition failed it meant that the out come and the declaration by Justice Esau Chulu remained valid. There ECL was properly sworn in having amassed over 50% of the vote cast and properly declared dully elected by the returning office and the fact that the petition clasped due to time which rendered it non existing.
How can the Constitutional Court rule against itself? This will surely be history not only for Zambians but for the world at large.
Hahahaha some UPND sympathisers awe shuwa….you will never hand over the mines to Anglo American handle over your souls as promises
The case have been thrown out already by 5he court this morning. The court ruled that the petitioners didn’t seek leave from the court to appeal the ruling of the single judge who ruled against them in the same.court. The case was dismissed by a sinfle Judge of the constitutional court just three fay before ECL was sworn in but Mwamba was not satisfied with the ruling of a single Judge and appealed to the full bench. In reposne Atorney General Likando Kalaluka asked the court to throw out the appeal saying it was not properly before court because the petitioners didn’t follow the court rules by not first seeking leave from the court of their intention to appeal to the full bench. In its rulling today the court agrees with the AG and correctly dismissed the case.
Meanwhile the Lawyer…
This petition will be thrown out for two reasons: First, when the Chairperson of ECZ declares winners (President and Vice President), then the Chief Justice is lawfully justified to proceed to swear-in declared winners provided there is no petition. In this case, ECZ Chairperson declared Mr. Lungu and Mrs Wina as winners. According to the judgment of the Constitutional Court on the intended petition by Messrs. Hakainde Hichilema and Geoffrey Mwamba, the petition technically lapsed. So, technically, there was no petition at all. Consequently, the CJ was on firm ground to swearing-in the declared winners. There is no lawful reason to compel the Concourt to make a declaration where there is no petition. Make my word, this will be the decision.
Of course those chaps will rule in favour of ECL.They wont bite the hand that feeds them.
Unfortunately ,the Concourts biased interpretation of the constitution will set bad legal precedent.
THE CONCOURT SHOULD BE DISSOLVED AFTER 2021.ITS A WASTE OF TAXPAYERS MONEY AND AN EMBARRASSMENT TO THE LEGAL SYSTEM OF ZAMBIA.
Waste of time we all know they will fail. Organize for 2021 and stop wasting time on bs.
In case you had not yet head, the case by UPND has been thrown out as they failed to follow the 14 days outlined in the constitution, therefore, the sworing was done legally.
Case over, UPND move on
So if the petition was submitted on time, the Chief Justice would not swear-in ECL?
So if you report a thief to Police after 24 hours, they cannot prosecute or make an arrest?
So if we make love without protection you must tell me within one year, else I am not the father?
NOW I KNOW. Let’s play. No change goals bane.