By Agness Changala-Katongo
Constitutional lawyer and State Counsel John Sangwa has insisted that President Edgar Lungu does not qualify to contest elections for the third time as the Constitution clearly bars him from doing so.
And Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) general secretary Father Emmanuel Chikoya says Zambia’s democracy is in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and something should be done about it before it is lost.
Meanwhile, Electoral Commission of Zambia director (ECZ) Patrick Nshindando has disclosed that corporation partners so far approached to help fund political parties to travel to Dubai to monitor the printing of ballot paper have refused to help.
Speaking during a News Diggers organized discussion forum under the theme ‘political violence and the state of democracy’ which featured him, Fr Chikoya and Nshindando, Sangwa said it will be interesting to see how the Electoral Commission of Zambia would handle President Lungu’s nomination papers, because the Constitution was very clear that he did not qualify for a third term.
Sangwa said what would be of interest is to see how Nshindando and Collegues at the ECZ would respond to this when President Lungu goes to file in his nomination papers as they had a right to reject them.
“What will be of interest is what Mr Nshindando and his colleagues will do when hopefully President Lungu files his papers. We will see what they are going to do because they have the right to reject the nomination papers so will see what they are going to do,” he said.
He said the Constitution does not talk about the number of years one has served but the number of times they are elected.
“I know people have various views but here is my view. You see when you read the language of the Constitution, it is very clear. The bottom line is this, President Lungu does not qualify to stand for elections in 2021. The issue is as simple as that,” Sangwa said. “It is the number of times you get elected.”
He said according to the Constitution, one was elected twice and they are done.
“The Constitution only expects you to get to contest or being elected twice. Once you have been elected twice, that’s it. You are done and that is still the position of the law,” Sangwa said. “They have totally missed it.