THE PF says it will take action against anyone talking against President Edgar Lungu’s candidature in the August 12 elections.
There has been hot debate about President Lungu’s eligibility to stand based on the current Constitution which forbids him from going for a third term since he has been sworn in twice.
And the Constitutional Court judgment of 2019 avoided the question on his eligibility instead concentrated on what constitutes a full term of office.
Constitutional lawyers such as John Sangwa, Dr O’brien Kaaba and Felicity Kayumba have argued for President Lungu’s ineligibility.
But Lusaka Province PF secretary Kennedy Kamba says those arguing against the Head of State’s eligibility were misleading the public and themselves.
“We warn them to stop issuing incorrect statements because they are embarrassing themselves and we will not take them kindly as the PF. The law has provisions that will allow us to take action against them,” he said in a statement on Thursday. “We want to appeal to Sangwa and all those who are excited and making weird claims about President Lungu’s eligibility, to begin to demonstrate sobriety because their hatred for President Lungu will not take them anywhere. President Lungu will be on the ballot, come August this year.”
He said the ruling party had no regrets about defending President Lungu’s candidature.
“As the PF in Lusaka, we want to put it on record that we have no regret whatsoever on the issue of defending President Edgar Lungu from malicious and frustrated individuals who are making weird claims that he is not eligible to stand,” Kamba added. “We have stated before that the highest court of the land interpreted the law accordingly and declared that President Lungu is eligible to stand. We know very well that people like John Sangwa who claims to be a renowned lawyer and a few individuals have formed a cartel to try by whatever means possible to drag President Lungu in the mud and try to paint him black in the eyes of Zambians when the Constitution was clear that he was eligible to stand.”
Kamba accused critics of deliberately misinterpreting the law to influence people’s minds.
He claimed the matter was settled by the Constitutional Court, so “all those who claim to be pundits of the law must stop these ridiculous claims that President Lungu is going for a third term and that he is not eligible to stand in 2021”.
“We want to state clearly here that we will defend the presidency and President Lungu from disgruntled individuals like Sangwa. They are trying to set a bad precedence by deliberately attempting to misinterpret the law for their selfish interests,” said Kamba. “Sangwa and some political party leader have been attempting to influence the minds of people into falsely believing that President Lungu was not eligible to stand in 2021. This issue was sorted and settled by the courts of law and we have all moved on as we campaign to have President Lungu re-elected in August. These people who are claiming that President Lungu is not eligible to stand are just trying to bring unnecessary debate and confusion because the highest court of the land, the Constitutional Court interpreted the law accordingly and cleared President Lungu that he only served one term.”