MALANJI AND LUSAMBO SEAT NULLIFICATION: WHAT IS NEXT?
The next electoral stop for the two is an appeal to the Constitutional Court within 14 days after the delivery of the decision by the High Court.
Article 73(3) guides that A person may appeal against the decision of the High Court to the Constitutional Court.
Clause (4) further explains that A Member of Parliament whose election is petitioned shall hold the seat in the National Assembly pending the determination of the election petition.
Therefore, both Malanji and Lusambo, once they appeal the High Court DECISION, will be back in Parliament awaiting final determination by the Constitutional Court whose timeframe to determine the petition is not legislated but at the discretion of the court.
The law does not allow a vacuum for a long time hence the period for appeal is within 14 days and if no appeal, election must be held within 90 days.
So, the predictable vacuum in the nullified seat is between the date of nullification to the date of lodging an appeal or the from the date of nullification to the date of holding the by-election.
Hopefully, the Constitutional Court will not conduct itself the way it did with Col Bizwayo Nkunika’s Lundazi Central parliamentary petition which took five years to determine.
That will be miscarriage of electoral justice by court otherwise believed to be a human rights court.
Now, we shift our eyes and ears to the Constitutional Court, effect next week, and will closely follow and monitor court’s conduct over these appeals esp with regards the timeframes in which the appeals will be determined.
I submit
McDonald Chipenzi