DO THE NOBLE THING, PF URGES THE JUDICIARY
….it beats logic that the High Court would nullify Hon Malanji’s seat saying he does not have a G12 Certificate and yet ECZ accepted his nomination having factored the same Certificate
LUSAKA, Tuesday, November 23, 2021 (SMART EAGLES)
The opposition Patriotic Front (PF) has urged the judiciary to do the right thing in handling various petitions following the 12 August elections this year.
PF Member of the Central Committee in charge of Information and Publicity Hon. Raphael Nakacinda described certain grounds upon which some seats have been nullified as an ultimate joke of the year.
Hon. Nakacinda said when he addressed the media in Lusaka today that for the Judge to suggest that Hon Malanji, the Kwacha Constituency Member of Parliament didn’t have a grade 12 certificate is laughable.
“For the judge to suggest that Hon Malanji didn’t have a certificate is laughable. We have the Nakonde Member of Parliament whose seat has been nullified because they want to place the entire responsibility, the court wanted to place the entire responsibility of condemning violence in that election on the Member of Parliament and say because he didn’t condemn the violence therefore we nullify the seat. That is a laughable ground for nullification,” he said.
“For Bowman Lusambo, to have a situation where a nickname was given to him by his own people in his own Constituency because of the workculture of being on the ground and pushing for development, and tthey therefore call him Buldozzer…and the judge says that name was intimidating to the electorates, and many other grounds used so far in the seats that have been nullified.”
The MCC said it is unfair for the Lunte Constituency Member of Parliament Hon. Mutotwe Kafwaya to have his seat nullified because he had been “campaigning saying that he was one of those soliciting for money for the social cash transfer and he valued that and that he said if he didn’t win people may not continue receiving the social cash transfer” is unfair.
Hon Nakacinda questioned if the seats where going to be nullified even based on the promises made to the electorates prior to the polling day.
“I mean the gentleman was minister and he was one of the great debaters on the floor of the house advocating for an increase of the social cash transfer. How then could you nullify a seat like that? are we now going to an extent of examining the campaign messages, campaign promises made to the electorates? What of the fact that President Hakainde Hichilema promised to procure fertilizer at $400 per tone? And today we have a scandal at his laps of having given a contract to someone who used to supply fertilizer for more than $1000 per tone,” he said.
“A scandal which is not only a scandal because of the price but because one of his sponsors in the campaign who happens to be a husband to one of his ministers is actually at the center of that scandal.”