SHUTTING THE COURTS OF LAW DURING THE PETITION PERIOD – QUESTIONS TO THE CHIEF JUSTICE
CHISHALA KATEKA President – New Heritage Party
26 August 2026
The Courts were surrounded by Police on Friday through to Sunday and have been closed from Monday to date (Wednesday 26 August, 2026).
As the result for the Presidential election was announced on Tuesday at 02:00 hours, the last day for the filing in the petition from Opposition would have been Tuesday 25th. This was not to be because, as everyone knows, the Courts were shut with the reason being cited as “Security reasons”.
Certain questions need to be asked of the Chief Justice and which we, as citizens, require answers to:
1. Following this unprecedented move to have the courts closed on the pen-ultimate and ultimate day for the filing in of the election petition and you being aware of the significance of the dates, what measures or alternative channels were provided to Opposition to file in the petitions?
2. If no alternative channels for filing in were provided, why not? Was this deliberate or negligence on your part?
3. Will you, once the courts are opened, allow the Opposition an extra two days to file in their petition, seeing as their inability to file in was purely due to the closing of the courts, under your watch? As you are well aware, precedent in Zambia and across the Commonwealth is that “where a litigant is prevented from filing by state action, time does not run against them”.
Anything less than a 2-day extension would be in bad faith and mean that there is no equity and equity must prevail.
1. Do you believe that denying the Opposition their constitutional right to file a petition is the just thing to do or do you recognise this as an injustice?
From where we are sitting, this is injustice not only to the Opposition but especially to the Zambian people who had pinned their hopes on this petition. It is also an injustice to the President Elect and UPND, who have been robbed of their right to legitimise their victory claims through the court process. Their victory will now forever be highly questioned and will continue to be ridiculed.
5. We have seen that there has been a memo from the Judiciary dated 25 August 2026 signed by the Administrator. Does this mean that the Courts are only half closed, able to conduct some work and issue memos, but not able to receive Petitions?
I end by quoting 2 Chronicles 19:6-7
“And said to the judges “Consider what you do, for you judge not for man but for the Lord. He is with you in giving judgment. Now then, let the fear of the Lord be upon you. Be careful what you do, for there is no injustice with the Lord our God, or partiality or taking bribes.”
National Security matters more than any thing like petty lamentations of election loss.The first loss must not make one think that all is lost.What if they lose five times.”Mulekeni Bally a twalilile,” Let Bally do his second term of office.
All the opposition the ao called UN, EU & NGOs have invested too much in propaganda and their own noise making to a point where they don’t know what their jobs are! They tend to think making noise in the media is work. Has anyone noticed that most of them have never held any serious jobs in their lives. Their leadership is making statements and criticising governments especially African and third world countries. They don’t do that to the US and other developed nations? Has anyone heard them speaking loundly about critiquing Israel for war in Palestine? What about war in Ukraine? War in Sudan? And all the other walls? Truth be told! Most of these chaps are just interested in the contract jobs they get for two or three years. They choose to criticise 3rd world countries and are scared to do the same to the big guys. Did anyone hear them in 2020 say anything when Trup wanted to steal an election? BIG NO. It id too risky for their bottom line. The risk of the contract being cut before the contracted time. They are not any better than us. Fellow Zambians work up and save your country instead of the two failed politicians. It’s a pity when the choice is so straightforward fellow Zambians could go and make such a big mistake and chose the two crooks who should belong to prison. Forget about Ibrahim. He’s reliant on propaganda.
Stop the rubbish!! Mundubile had told the nation on Friday the 14th that he had one the elections according to his PVT and he had all the evidence. After HH was declared a winner in the early hours of Tuesday and with all the evidence in his pocket collected why didn’t he file between Monday and early Friday?? We all heard Linda announcing loud and clear to the nation that they were not going to petition because lacking evidence. Who are these people trying to bluff? After learning that the courts were not going to open on Friday because of security concerns and suddenly she changes and start claiming the petition was not lodged because the courts were closed!! How convenient and stupid to make such a change. What evidence did you use because you had put it in black and white that there were gaps in the evidence! Your behaviour is no different from that of Mpundun of being prepared to be killed and to kill!! They show double standards and not being objective. If I can ask! Which People did you want to petition on behalf??? The 61% that had voted for HH the winner are very happy with the choice they picked. Stop hiding in tongue twisting, we can see how you lie by pretending that you petioning on behalf of the people
In a democracy the majority wins and you need to respect that. In fact the win was so big, 1M plus. It doesn’t matter if it’s a constitution right. Your conduct is illogical and you should be ashamed of yourself. It’s an abuse of the court process.