CIC EDITORIAL ANALYSIS.
IT MUST BE HARD TO BE A CONSTITUTIONAL COURT JUDGE RIGHT NOW.
How are we going to tell the people Edgar Lungu never Held Office between January 2015 and August 2016 because that didn’t constitute a Term of Office, as we ruled in Danny Pule and others?
The Legal Resources Foundation question is different from Bampi Kapalasa’s and the Concourt cannot dodge it by claiming it has already been adjudicated in the Danny Pule case.
They now have to answer whether or not Edgar Lungu has HELD OFFICE Twice, and not whether he has served 2 terms.
They are in maningi trouble! Very big trouble.
If they say he never held office, it means he was in office illegally, because a person cannot be President without Holding Office.
That, in turn means that all decisions he made during that period are null and void, and that includes their jobs as Concourt Judges because he appointed them!
Even the 2016 Constitutional amendments become invalid, since he ascented to them while serving as President illegally, which means we are still under the 1991 constitution as amended in 1996.
That even makes things worse for ECL because that constitional dispensation is even more specific that a person who has twice been elected is not eligible for election a third time.
There certainly isn’t a legally justifiable outcome that favors the status quo.
Right now, we are sure they are thinking how to use the same trick they used on the 2016 election petition to get the eligibility petition timed out. But we are sure they’ve realized that it’s not practical. So what do they do next?
Get Kennedy Kamba to physically make it impossible for the eligibility petition to take off by having his thousands of cadres at the court grounds!
Imagine a whole wing of Government being prevented from executing its mandate, with the police saying they are not aware of such a plan (despite it being in public domain).
And the army, who’s function is to defend the country from its enemies, local and foreign, will sit out and watch a bunch of cadres prevent the Judiciary, a wing of Government from doing its job!
Impossible! This can only happen if the Judiciary are in on it!
And all this while, the country has a sitting President! Not even a word from him about the plan by his cadres. He’s equally gotta be in on it. He is, after all, the ultimate beneficiary!
It is painful to be a Concourt Judge right now!
CIC PRESS TEAM