DECISION ON JJ BANDA ILLEGAL
MPS PETITION SPEAKER AGAINST ILLEGAL DECLARATION OF JJ BANDA’S PETAUKE SEAT
•revisit the decision made on the floor of the House on Tuesday, 19 November 2024 or face legal action
•if we do not receive your communication informing us of the reversal of the decision within forty-eight (48) hours, we shall take out legal action against the presiding officers.
•decision by the Speaker is NOT backed by
Standing Order 223 and is against the Constitution
WE THE UNDERSIGNED, MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT HEREBY PETITION THE OFFICE OF THE SPEAKER OF THE NATIONAL on her decision to give the-seven (7) days ultimatum to the Honourable Mr Emmanuel Jay Banda Member of Parliament for Petauke Central to present himself before Parliament failing to which his Parliamentary seat will be declared vacant.
By way of background to our Petition, the Honourable Mr Banda was a victim of an abduction and was kept out of circulation by his Captors for a considerable period of time.
After pressure was brought to bear on the Zambia Police, the MP was made to resurface but he was immediately arrested and charged with the Offence of aggravated robbery which is an unbailable offence.
While in Police custody the MP became indisposed and was taken to Hospital for medical attention and it was during this period of medication that the Honourable Member went missing in circumstances that have remained unexplained satisfactorily up to this day by Authorities.
Without belabouring the point, we find that the decision by the Speaker is not backed by the
Standing Order 223 which was cited as authority for giving the Honourable MP the seven (7) days ultimatum.
More importantly the Standing Order cited does not grant the Speaker any authority declare a Member’s seat vacant for failure to attend sittings.
The clear reading of the Standing Order shows that the only power the Speaker has in deserving instances is to punish the Member
who is found guilty by suspensions of one week for the first offender, two weeks or the second Offender and one month for the third and subsequent Offender.
Our second and equally important ground for this our Petition is Constitutional.
The National Assembly, which is presided over by the Speaker, is a creature of the Constitution. Under the Constitutional democracy espoused by the Constitution,as amended by the Constitution ( Amendment Act No.2 of 2016), the mandate is to declare the seat of a member of parliament.
The Speaker is only bound to announce the vacancy upon being notified by the Constitutional Court of such vacancy after the Court process.
On this basis we find that the part of the Ruling of the Speaker which threatened to declare the Petauke Seat vacant if the Honourable MP fails to appear in the House after seven (7) days to be a usurpation of the Constitutional mandate of the Constitutional Court as created by Act Number 2 of 2016.
We therefore earnestly urge the Speaker to consider our Petition and, upon reflection, revisit the decision made on the floor of the Housc on Tuesday 19 November 2024.
We hasten to state that if we do not receive your communication informing us of the reversal of the decision within forty eight (48) hours we shall take out legal action against the presiding Officers and seek the relief from the Court which will properly interpret both the Standing Orders 2024 and the provisions of
the Constitution that provide for the procedure for declaring a Parliamentary seat vacant
AS WITNESS TO THIS PETITION our signatures have been appended this 19th day of November 2024
MPS PETITION SPEAKER AGAINST ILLEGAL DECLARATION OF JJ BANDA’S PETAUKE SEAT
