YALI President Andrew Ntewewe
YALI President Andrew Ntewewe

The Young African Leaders Initiative – YALI – has clarified that President Lungu’s eligibility to contest 2021 elections settled conclusively by the Constitutional Court which defined what a term of office is and what it means to hold office of President.

During a media briefing at Mika Lodge this morning, YALI President Andrew Ntewewe exclusively quoted page 83 in which the Court stated that “the Presidential term of office that ran from 25 th January, 2015 to 13 th September, 2016 and straddled two constitutional regimes cannot be considered as a full term.”

Mr Ntewewe also said the Court pronounced itself on what it means to hold office twice as stated by Article 106(3) of the Constitution when the Court clarified that a President can only hold office if he served a term of 3 years and above.

He said that page J82 of the Judgment, the Court said clauses in Article 106 cannot be isolated from each other in interpreting the article and that an interpretation of a constitutional provision that isolates the provisions touching on the same subject is faulty.

“Therefore, to state that Article 106 (3) applies to the term that straddled two constitutional regimes but that Article 106 (6) does not, is to isolate Article 106 (3) from the rest of the provisions in Article 106 which is untenable at law, and is at variance with the tenets of constitutional interpretation, as all the provisions on the tenure of office of the President must be read together. The provision regarding the full term must be applied to defining what is meant by twice held office under Article 106 (3) in interpreting the provisions of that Article,” read part of the Judgment

YALI has stated said the mere act of swearing-in a President once or twice does not constitute holding of office but that the length of time for which one was in office of the President determines whether a person held office or not.

Mr. Ntewewe gave an example of what the Court stated on page J78 that “under Article 106 (6) (b) it is now possible for one to occupy the office of President for a
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period which is less than a full term in addition to two full terms of office. Meaning that a President can be in the office for a total of almost 13 years.”

Mr. Ntewewe said the Court was clear that a President can be sworn into office for 3 times during 13 years and constitutionally to be holding office twice as long as the other period he was sworn in was less than 3 years.

Mr. Ntewewe has since questioned the motive behind State Counsel John Sangwa’s approach and called on him to forever hold his peace if cannot respect the position and pronouncement of the Court, regardless of whether he disagrees with that position.

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