LUSAKA, Zambia — The Lusaka High Court on Friday dismissed an urgent application seeking to stop the processing of 77 bills before Parliament dissolves next week, ruling that the dispute belongs before the Constitutional Court of Zambia and allowing lawmakers to continue an extraordinary final legislative push ahead of dissolution on May 12.
The ruling came after LCK Freedom Foundation and Chapter One Foundation asked the court to halt what they described as an unlawful legislative rush, arguing that Parliament had compressed scrutiny timelines and weakened public participation requirements under Article 89 of the Constitution. The organisations sought an urgent intervention before lawmakers concluded work on dozens of bills covering governance, elections, public accountability and constitutional rights.
High Court Judge Lameck Mwale dismissed the application after ruling that the questions raised required constitutional interpretation and could only be determined by the Constitutional Court of Zambia. He said matters that fall under constitutional interpretation cannot be pursued through judicial review under Order 53 of the White Book simply because they involve public law issues. The court denied leave for the application to proceed and dismissed the matter.
The judgment delivered immediate relief to government and Parliament, which have spent the past week operating under an accelerated legislative timetable. The National Assembly has been holding extended sittings since May 4 after Vice-President Mutale Nalumango successfully moved a motion on April 30 suspending Standing Orders 24(1), 24(2), 27, 34 and 123. The suspension allows Parliament to sit for longer hours and process multiple stages of legislation within a single sitting.
With Parliament scheduled to dissolve on Tuesday, lawmakers are now expected to continue sitting through the weekend in an effort to clear roughly 77 to 78 bills still moving through different stages of the House. The compressed timetable has placed lawmakers under pressure to debate, amend and vote on legislation within days before the life of the current Parliament expires.
Linda Kasonde, executive director of LCK Freedom Foundation, argued in court documents that legislation passed without meaningful public participation would be unconstitutional and legally vulnerable. She maintained that suspending normal parliamentary procedures had denied citizens adequate opportunity to examine legislation with long-term national consequences.
More than 20 civil society organisations separately raised concerns over the pace of lawmaking, warning that Parliament was moving through legislation at a speed that weakened scrutiny. The organisations said laws affecting democratic governance require wider public participation before enactment.
Cephas Lumina, a constitutional law professor, described the current process as a serious threat to constitutional governance. He identified the Public Gathering Bill No. 71 of 2026 and the Human Rights Commission Amendment Bill No. 28 of 2026 as two of the most contentious proposals before Parliament, saying both carry major implications for civil liberties and institutional independence.
The Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection also questioned the pace of the legislative process, saying the speed of lawmaking risks weakening public trust in national institutions.
Government has maintained that its legislative programme is lawful and that Parliament has authority to manage its own timetable. The Ministry of Justice Zambia and the National Assembly of Zambia have defended the suspension of standing orders as a lawful parliamentary procedure.
The legal dispute is far from over.
Civil society organisations have already indicated they will continue pursuing the matter before the Constitutional Court of Zambia after Parliament dissolves. By that stage, Zambia could be dealing with newly enacted laws whose constitutional legitimacy remains under judicial scrutiny.
Are we ready expecting anything good out of those 77 outstanding bills? None at all! They will not be just laws.
Actually, there should be a law that forbids parliament from making any new laws, 14 days before it is dissolved.
There is a reason we have all these procedures. Whats the point of having safeguard producers that you just ignore. UPND is creating dangerous precedents. Other upcoming governments will do the same thing. Zambians are the only losers
Concourt judges already know who appointed them and who pays their salaries. This is an exercise in futility.
I fully agree. This isn’t a school debate club. Laws meant to be obeyed by a whole nation need to be thoroughly scrutinized. They certainly should nt be rushed.
But knowing Zambian lawyers(they love to sell out) you will now see the constitutional court checking every clause to find a loophole that allows the processing of these 77 bills. The court won’t mind the riff raff result as long as they please the government.
Oh John Sangwa why did you pull out of these elections. You could have sorted these sham courts for us poor Zambians. The public media too. Waaaaaaaah!
The high court is just Pontius Pilating.
It knows the speaker is wrong but it is passing on the case to Constitutional court. It also knows there’s no time as it will soon be election time. When then does the case get heard and judged? If the CC rules on August 12 what do we do. All the bills will be on the floor?Perhaps we just Crucify Mutti?