Presidential declaration form
WHY PRESIDENT LUNGU IS NOT ELIGIBLE TO STAND IN 2021
AM NOT A LAWYER BUT MY PARTICIPATION ON THE ICGLR PEACE PROCESS GAVE ME A RARE PRIVILEGE TO SCRUTINIZE A LOT OF NATIONAL LAWS AND ALSO GAVE ME INSIGHT ON HOW TO INTERPRET LAWS..
This is my personal opinion.
what will determine whether President Lungu stands or not is not the article defining what a term is but article 106(3) of the constitution of Zambia defining whether he is eligible or not.. Article 106(3) in a layman’s language can be described as a more superior law superseding the clause that defines what a term is and 106(3) ‘may’ have been brought in by experts to cure the third term appetite and syndrome.
According to the experts they envisioned that what is important is, for as long as a candidate has been sworn in twice that is more important , irrespective of whether they have been in office for 2 days or 3 years in that particular term . So whether you have been in office for 2 days or 3 years nothing stops a head of state from fulfilling his campaign promises or duties. Allow me to provide another analogy in trying to explain the aspect of the number of years saved being immaterial in trying to define eligibility. A person accused of making somebody pregnant in court can’t say I used a condom and use that as a pretext to deny a pregnancy…For as long as it has been established that you were in bed with the said lady you are responsible for that pregnancy. so it doesn’t matter whether you penetrated or you used a condom..The issue of DNA is another topic..
When you are trying to interpret a piece of legislation you should not only look at the literal because a piece of law has so many facets such as ; the background, intent and what it was intended to cure…
CONCLUSION
So whether President Lungus first term was 2 days or 3 years is immaterial in this particular case for as long as he was sworn in twice.
Author is
John Noel Lungu
Zambia’s first youth representative on the International Conference of the Great Lakes region(ICGLR )peace process .