CONCOURT SHOULD CALL FOR EARLY ELECTIONS ON TUESDAY-MILES SAMPA

CONCOURT SHOULD CALL FOR EARLY ELECTIONS ON TUESDAY-MILES SAMPA

About ECL 10th December ConCourt ruling & potential Presidential by election before end of March 2025

Most of us are hoping ECL eligibility ruling goes in his favour on the 10th of December 2024 and so he can exercise his democratic right to participate in 2026 elections. This that Zambians can then make the decision via the ballot on whether they want him back as President or not. That’s what is called democracy. Citizens to vote in favour or in rejection of a particular candidate or candidates.

In the event he is ruled out on the 10th verdict  however, then as most have pointed out, a constitutional ‘earthquake’ will arise.

The same 2016 amended constitution says if one presidential candidate is not eligible to be on the ballot for whatever reason, then fresh Presidential nominations should been redone or will have to be redone. It means a Presidential by election will have to be held within 90 days.

It also means President HH hands over power to the Speaker of Parliament Nelly Mutti to oversea the by election. If the verdict goes against ECL, the Speaker would be about one of the few constitutional office bearers that would remain legal as she was not appointed by the President but elected by MPs whose elections in 2021 are not in question or in dispute.

It gets even more complex. If President HH wins the by election within 90 days then he will be deemed to be starting his first 5 years term until 2030 and by default be entitled to another term thereafter. Wait a minute. He would however have already been sworn twice that is in 2021 and in the potential by election by March 2025. Dejavu. So the ConCourt legal battles would resurface then and that is assuming the current constitution famous ‘lacunae’ (vacuum, silence or inconsistency) would have not been cleaned up by then.

Whatever the argument, the fact of the matter is that which ever way the 10th December ECL ConCourt verdict will go; it will permanently  change the course of geopolitics in Zambia in more ways than one. Nipano tuli.