Pilato writes 👇
The Kabushi and Kwacha Project
I find the High Court ruling very inspiring and relieving. I think ECZ and the state should sit back and rework their approach towards delivering their mandate.
I know the staying of the election is a bitter pill for the ruling party and their supporters but it is a very helpful decision by the courts for us to strengthen our democracy. To begin with I think that the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) neglected to address fundamental issues that were raised the day they issued a statement bordering on the nominations of Mr Bowman Lusambo in Kabushi and one Bonanza Mr Malanji for the Kwacha constituency. A lot of good minds wondered why ECZ was rushing to express a position that was targeted at the potential candidates for the PF even before the PF had announced who their nominees would be.
The by-elections for the constituencies raised more questions and suspicions than answers. These questions went unanswered and suspicions went unaddressed thereby discrediting the entire election. If the high court had not stayed the elections in the two constituencies, the results would have lacked credibility and legitimacy. It is therefore to claim that the judgment by the high court is in the best interests of our democracy. The integrity of our democratic institutions must be above suspicion for us to retain some measure of trust in their operations. I think the High court managed to stop an election whose results would have affected the image and operations of the ECZ negatively. BUT the high court has demonstrated a number of things, these are;
1) Separation of power- I think the high court decision has demonstrated clearly that the judiciary is independent from the executive. In the past months we saw and heard my big brother Mr Raphael Nakachinda claim that President Hichilema was directing judges to rule in his favor. This claim had the potential to discredit the court rulings and the judiciary in general. The ruling on the Kabushi and Kwacha constituencies demonstrates that NOT EVEN the Republican President had an idea of the judgement that would come from the courts. I remember when we took a case to court a few months ago, we would get would be informed of the court’s position by politicians before we heard it from the courts.
The second observation is that ECZ is an institution therefore, it does not have the privilege to be emotional even on emotional matters. ECZ does not have the privilege to be influenced by hormones but by established laws. Public excitement on a matter is not enough to stir the institution to act outside the law.
It is true that most of us laughed and celebrated the nullification of the two gentlemen BUT that was not enough for an institution as ECZ to act in favor of the public excitement. The mandate to do the right thing is solemn but doing the right thing is not always a popular position.
The last observation is that our constitution is a screaming scandal. The fact that we keep running to the courts for the interpretation of the law instead of justice, is fact that we need to address the constitutional gaps for us to deal with the problems we are faced with. This constitution was signed for political interests than for national good. We need to start from there.
The government should move in fast to address the gaps in our constitution before the constitution widens the gaps in our society.
Bye