IT’S not anyone of us who is stopping President Lungu from contesting next year’s elections, argues Luxon Kazabu.
On Friday, The Mast reported chief Cooma of Choma district saying there is no need for anyone to try and stop President Edgar Lungu and UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema from contesting the August 2021 polls, because both are citizens who deserve to participate in the politics of their country.
“There is no need for anyone to come up with schemes to try and stop President Edgar Lungu or Hakainde Hichilema from contesting the 2021 general elections because the two are bona fide Zambian citizens who deserve to participate in the politics of their own country,” said Cooma. “As a country, let’s not waste time trying to fight our own sons for merely seeking political office. The court already ruled what constitutes a term and we all know what that means.”
Lungu won the Republican presidency in January 2015 and retained it in August 2016.
Article 106 (3) of the Constitution of Zambia states that: “a person who has twice held office as President is not eligible for election as President.”
Nonetheless, the PF leadership and rank insists that Lungu would be its presidential candidate in August 2021 because ‘he has only served one term of office.’
Still on the strength of Article 106 (3), numerous stakeholders continue to argue that President Lungu would be abrogating the Constitution if he goes ahead with his third term presidential scheme.
“It’s not anyone of us who is stopping President Lungu from contesting next year’s elections. It is the Constitution! He has twice held office,” Kazabu reacted to Cooma. “And please, His Royal Highness chief Cooma must learn to read what the Constitution says. [If] he hasn’t got the capacity to understand and interpret the Constitution as it was meant by the drafters, he should ask those who understand to explain to him what is involved.”
Under Michael Sata’s government, Kazabu was a fisheries and livestock deputy minister and Nkana PF member of parliament.
Kazabu said at no time has the Constitutional Court said President Lungu was eligible for the 2021 presidential vote.
“Some people are saying President Lungu was just completing Mr Sata’s term. There is no such thing as completing one’s term of office, unless now when you have a Vice-President who is a running mate,” he explained. “But before [enactment of the amended Constitution, Act No.2 of 2016], there was nothing like you are completing another person’s term.”
He stressed that: “the moment you got elected, it means that you were serving your own term of office.”
“Whether it was six months or one year, you were serving your own term of office,” he said.
Kazabu pointed out the misnomer with Cooma’s view that no one should stop President Lungu and Hichilema from contesting the presidential 2021elections, “because both are Zambians.”
“The issue here is not whether or not one is a Zambian. [But] the issue is about one having held office twice. That’s what eliminates President Lungu from next year’s contest for the presidential seat,” he noted. “Yes, we should embrace each other, as this chief is saying. But that’s not to suggest that we must ignore what the Constitution says. That is the principal law of the law and as such, we should all respect it – chief or no chief.”
Kazabu emphasised that it was not about anyone scheming to block President Lungu.
“But it’s about Zambians who mean well for this country – defending the Constitution. Yes, we all agree that the term of office for the President is five years. That is assuming that all [happened] under normal circumstances,” Kazabu noted.
“But in this case we are talking about President Lungu having ascended to that office after the demise of president Michael Sata – may his soul rest in peace. He (Lungu) did not automatically assume office; we had to have a by-election and then he won and got sworn-in into office [in 2015].”
He stressed that President Lungu held office from the day he was sworn in January 2015 until the next President-elect in 2016 was sworn-in.
“In this case it happens to be the same President Lungu. So, he held office for the first time from January 2015 to September 2016 and now he is holding office for the second time, from September 2016 until August 2021,” Kazabu explained. “I don’t even understand why people are debating the ineligibility of Lungu for 2021. It’s not like the Constitution’s particular provision is written in complicated English. It is written in very simple English!”
He further charged that it was the likes of people like Cooma who could mislead the nation and: “mutilate, rape the Republican Constitution.”
“And that’s what some of us are saying no to and it’s a big NO. President Lungu is not eligible! It’s not coming from any one of us. All we are doing – those of us who love Zambia and we are honest – is to understand the simple provisions in the Constitution and in this particular case it’s Article 106 (3). Kwamana (finish)!” said Kazabu. “Ibami kabalilemeka abalo nobantu (let chiefs respect themselves please), because before they know it we the subjects would have risen against them, for not standing for mother Zambia. It is not about individuals but the Republic of Zambia and its principal law – the Republican Constitution. Full stop!”