Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Extend period for Presidential petition from 14 to 30 days – Chief Registrar of High court

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HIgh Court
HIgh Court

Chief Registrar of the High Court Charles Kafunda has proposed for an extension for the period in which to determine a Presidential petition from the from the current 14 to 30 days.

Speaking at the National Dialogue Forum this morning, Mr. Kafunda said this will give ample time to the Judiciary to deal with such matters in future.

Mr. Kafunda said the Constitutional Court faced a lot of challenges in dealing with the Presidential petition which was filed by the UPND.

Contributing to the debate, Bwana Mkubwa Member of Parliament Jonas Chanda argued that 30 days will be too much in which to deal with the Presidential petition.

Dr. Chanda said extending the period to 30 days will be costly to the nation especially that the country would have come from campaigns and the election.

And Mwembeshi Independent Member of Parliament Machila Jamba also said 14 working days is enough to determine the petition.

The proposal has since been subjected to a vote by Chairperson of the National Dialogue Forum Professor Muyunda Mwanalushi, after a stalemate.

33 COMMENTS

  1. Hh and his cadas should have attended and participate in voting for or against.

    Hh is enemy to himself surrounded by zombies

    • This is serious couple on Matibini. This assault on democracy KK gave us. So the Dialogue is even voting and passing laws? These pararel structure need closed tomorrow.

    • Experimentation is the centerpiece of adaptability … 14 days left a bitter taste in everyone’s mouth.

      Let’s try the 30 days as suggested by the learned Chief Registrar. He being part of the process and understanding the mechanics behind the scenes from experts like him could be invaluable.

      You want to hear from people involved in these processes as they have first hand knowledge that can make the process better.

      The downside could be potential for abuse should such an extension be granted. An all rounded process would mitigate that possibility for abuse while allowing for an extension.

      Let’s run this country the best way we know how … let’s roll.

      Epo mpelele,

      BRM

    • @Nostra … leave the Legend KK out of deprivation for democracy. Blame that on Mainza Chona.

      He single-handedly steered the smart people of the Zambian Enterprise towards One Party Participatory Democracy during the China Declaration of 1972.

      Bashi Panji just happened to be the beneficiary. You have no better democrat in Zambia’s history than KK who called for an election 3 years before his legal mandate was over.

      Today God has graced him with 95 solid years ~ What A Sweet Life.

      Epo mpelele,

      BRM

  2. Those who are proposing that the 14 day period of the Presidential petition be maintained are not being reasonable. They should realize that evidence has to be produced from the more than 150 constituencies across the country to determine the petition fairly. A case in point was the last petition in 2016 where the UPND was not even heard but the court just wasted time on preliminaries. No wonder the dove failed to fly during the inauguration ceremony. Something was wrong.

    • The problem is not the period but the caliber of lawyers who want to become legislators in court. I the UPND petition, not even one shred of evidence was produced in 14 days. What can the petitioner do if given an extra 16 days apart from chewing the clients money?

    • Thats what happens when you boycott. Now you are crying from the terraces instead of being in the field.

      In fact they must shorten period to 48hrs

    • @Its Politiical, I agree with you. It’s too much of boycotts by Hakainde and his slaves masquerading as MPs! If all his slaves were present, the extension would have been easily achieved without subjecting the motion to a vote.

    • THE PROBLEM OF THINKING THAT THE BATTLE IS FOR THE OPPOSITION TO FIGHT IT IN PARLIAMENT ONLY WHEN THEY ARE REPRESENTED MAKES THINGS TO BACKFIRE. WHEN YOU REDUCE IT TO 48HRS YOU MAY THINK YOU ARE FIXING SOMEONE OR A PARTY BUT ONLY TO FIND YOURSELF IN THE SAME SITUATION. THE LAWS SHOULD BE FAIRLY PASSED OUT OTHERWISE YOU WILL ONE DAY GET IN YOUR OWN TRAP.

    • I understand how increasing the number of days may improve the fairness of the trial as per your explanation. My problem with these days which infact I would suggest scraping off completely is the tension it leaves the whole country not knowing what is next for all those number of days. Its difficult to be productive over these periods. Imagine a month of non productivity from people who don’t know whether they have a job or not (Political appointees). And not just those, the whole country waiting with such tension just for five people to do decide in 30 days. I think the best is to scrap it out completely and revert to the swearing in immediately. We should instead work on the fairness of the elections from campaigning (Public Order Act) , voting (Stop vote buying and stop violence) and…

    • …. tallying (Have water tight systems to prevent rigging) and make the process trust worthy so people do not have any reasons to doubt results. Extending the potion period is not the solution. What will stop another “chamba” smoker suggesting 90 instead of 30 days is better if even after 30 days they feel they haven’t been heard?

  3. Educated or so you call yourself, know that the preliminary issues were raised by UPNDEED team of lawyers and the ConCourt. They were lost as they could not gather any credible evidence of malpractice until the 14 days elapsed.The window of 14days is enough as the appeal can be commenced immediately and evidence will follow later as the case is being handled. You dimwit!!

  4. Zambian MPs kuwayawafye. You think ( PRESIDENTIAL PETITION ) is a good thing such that you even debate extending the days from 14 to 30 ? Do you understand the implications involved ? You should be debating how you can end future presidential petitions. Debate the symptoms, things like why does it take more than a week to release final results from Lusaka( Kanyama).

  5. Leave 14 days alone!!!!!! 14 days is 14 days period. Who wants to go through 30 days of petition nonsense , grinding the country to a halt ???? we must move on from election election election and spend more time on economic matters

  6. There will always be petitions people.
    Losers will always petition. 7 to 14 days, I submit. In other words just make it clear, don’t change it.

  7. I would rather 21 days that’s more than enough to hear a petition and if the lawyers are up to speed they will wrap up their deliberations within the 21 days. Of course those who need deliverance like Adolf or healing might want to stretch out the entire period in the meantime forum shopping before other courts subordinated to the constitutional court. And while you are at it scrap the Concort let it on constitute when we have a matter to be heard and the President must be the chief justice we cannot have a two headed judiciary monster…once no matters are to be heard it should dissolve until it next sits so that the judges can help clear the back log of court cases

  8. May be 21 days would be good. However what WE NEED IS TO CLEARLY DEFINE WHAT CONSTITUTES THOSE DAYS TO AVOID CONFUSION. IS IT ALL DAYS INCLUDING SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS OR ONLY MONDAYS TO FRIDAYS??

  9. Let’s leave it at 14 days – and be clear on what the 14 days means – 30 days will be too much time wasted on issues that will not change anything. Also remember that after every election there will be a Petition – that is the nature of our politics.

  10. My vote is maintain 14 days but excluding weekends and public holidays, and with the incumbent President in place. 30 days with trib.als? They will just be playing to the gallery and wasting everybody’s time.

    • Yeah, yeah especially keep the ‘minus weekends.’ Clarify that and write it in capitals in bold print, just to make sure!

  11. EVEN IF YOU INCREASED THAT TO 60 DAYS, IT WILL NOT BE ENOUGH FOR SOME PEOPLE. WHAT WE NEED TO DO IS TO IMPROVE ON TRANSPARENCY AND STRENGTHEN THE ELECTORAL PROCESS.

  12. There’s no credible Presidential Election Petition that can be heard and decided in 14 or 30 days in Zambia because of the manner in which we conduct our elections

  13. Please we don’t want to extend.This will crumble the country looking at party like UPND.We can’t allow the country to be ungovernable for 30 days.Please 14 days is ok.what we went thru was enough in 2016.I can’t accpet more days.This man has been bought by UPND.He wants confusion in the country.

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