Deputy Chief whip Tutwa Ngulube has said that it was not the idea of government for inmates to start voting, but that of the Constitutional Court that ordered the government and the Electoral Commission of Zambia to allow inmates to start voting.
Mr. Ngulube said that this was after Prison Care and Counselling Association Executive Director Godfrey Malembeka successfully sued the Attorney General in the Constitutional Court.
Mr. Ngulube said that despite these facts being in public domain some opposition parties have chosen to mislead the public that the decision was made by the PF.
He told ZNBC news that these deliberate efforts to mislead the public are a sign that the opposition parties have already started looking for excuses to give when they are beaten by the PF during the 2021 general elections.
Mr. Ngulube said since the country’s independence in 1964, there has never been a government that attempted to allow the inmates to vote until the Constitutional Court gave a directive following a petition by an NGO called Prisca.
Mr. Ngulube encouraged Zambians to go to the Constitution Court and read about the case that led to inmates being allowed to vote rather than to be fed lies by some sections of society.
On Friday, ECZ announced that following the case of Godfrey Malembeka (Prisons Care and Counselling Association – PRISCA) Vs Attorney General and ECZ in which the court held that prisoners’ right to vote should be upheld, and the Commission in fulfilling the ruling was required to undertake Prisoners Voting for 2021 general elections.
ECZ further said that the Commission had made steady progress towards finalization of the guidelines to facilitate for Prison Voting and are expected to conclude this by September 2020 in time for the Voter registration exercise, and that the next steps will involve consultations with key stakeholders especially Political Parties and non-state actors.
You mean the same Concourt that order PF govt to pay back illegally overstayed and accrued allowances in 2016 Presidential campaign? The same Concourt you have ignored….this boy is as dull a lawyer as his boss in State House.
You only follow court rulings when it suits you.
The law of the land is supreme. Neither me or even the president can dictate the law or go against a ruling my the learned judges. If prisoners have the right to do so,who is kaizar to say no? Also I would rather prisoners who are Zambian to have a say than diasporans who have allegiance to another country and wish death and evil on this country. Kz
Very well, then to enable prisoners to vote in an informed way, the number of registered voters in each prison should be public information and all political parties should be allowed to campaign to in-mates.
Does he mean the semi qualified judges authorized for convicted criminals to vote!?
Tutwa Ngulube, you make a lot of noise as though you are the only young lawyer who understands the constitution more than others.
Grow up young man, you will soon kiss goodbye to that parliamentary seat in Kabwe.
PF must go!
The nature of opposition parties is made clear by their take on the law made. Prisoners must be made aware of the opposition objection to their being granted voting rights, so they better know whom to support 2021, surely not opposition who are working against improvements to their lives.
Tutws Ngulunyokola, please learn to just shut the god damn mouth up if you do not have anything coherent of sensible to say. You cannot only abide by court cases that favour you, ask ministers to pay back all the money they drew while on office illegally. You chaps are lawless, could it be the mbeba you are eating all the time making you mad in the head like this?
If there’s anything that prisoners need most it’s conjugal rights not voting rights. This a misplaced program
Madiru system, kabwe central is a personal to holder for tutwa jst like petauke for dora and kabushi for lusambo.
KZ bu colour bobe …If PF respects the rule of law as you imaginary appear to think, your ministers would have by now paid back tax payers cash which they got for overstaying in office on the directive of the lazy one .As a matter of Kapapa and Za yellow could have been cited for contempt for publicly saying that they will not pay back the money .Their comment undermined the courts judgement and the two should have been dragged to court to explain themselves . Alas !The trend in Zambia now is , we do have rules for the ordinary Zambians and other rules for ministers like Chilufya chitalu and Lubinda . Our law is simply an ass
Let Prisoners vote. They have constitutional right to do so.
Kongola one of the things bill 10 is trying to achieve is certainty in the law so that things like you have mentioned don’t happen as was the case under the current constitution. However it’s you Same ones against bill 10. So what do you guys really want?
This a signal that elections will be rigged. There is a lot at stake, PF well know that should they lose the elections they will all go behind bars. There are a number tricks these PF thugs have up their sleeves. To name a few;
1. Printing ballot papers in Dubai
2. Electronic voter registration
3. Reregistering the 6 million voters
4. Reducing the registration duration from 60 to 30 days.
Opposition open your eyes, this is the time to challenge all these issues, otherwise you will go through the same petition loop as last time.
Don’t lie, the Concourt can’t order govt ad ECZ to allow prisoners to vote bt its PF strategy, thts whr they hv seen one weak point to rig the elections, 30 days of registration ad many more.
PF is powerful than govt, whn govt purchase anything for military, police, salaries or projects across the country, it’s PF who does it whn its tax payers money. Surprisingly it hs become powerful ad very rich to fund all not the govt.
I never heard the UNIP leadership going on a cross country preaching to the nation tht UNIP built this or that moreover they built biggest projects which l hv never seen since, MMD ad PF combined. Zambians hv eyes, PF can’t fool them.
Kainyo Zulu is espousing nothing but the devil’s philosophy here, it’s all nothing but stinking nincompoopery he is promoting here, no wonder Whites think the average black persons is intellectually challenged! I mean, with Lou and all her educations still so tribally bigoted, what does it say about the Bisa kaffirs? They’re will evolving towards Homosapien!
This is why sangwa said…izi mbuzi zili mu concourt are all not qualified…they have chosen to allow ba saakala ..nefi Pondo to vote but not well meaning Zambians who are outside the country…is it because those in prison are equal in manners to mbuzi zili mu government
This PF government woke up today and obeyed the same court that ordered illegal ministers in office to pay back and went ahead silently to allow criminals in prisons to vote? You have madness within you to think that prisoners would be free to make electoral choices when it is only the PF with access to prisons.
WHEN,THEY WERE GETTING ALL THESE DEBTS WHAT WAS ON PF MIND?AND WHAT DID THEY USE THE LOANS FOR? JUST FOR PERSONAL USE.THE WORST GOVT ZAMBIA EVER HAD IS PF.PLEASE,PARIS CLUB DON’T ACCEPT ANY LENIENCY CZ IT WENT INTO INDIVIDUAL POCKETS. AND THEY ARE BUSY ACQUIRING MORE DEBTS. THEY OWE THE CHINESE ALOT OF DEBTS. WHAT A SHAME.WHAT DIFFERENCE HAVE THEY DONE IN DEVELOPING THE PEOPLE OF ZAMBIA BUT JUST WORSENING PEOPLES LIVES.
Zambia has approximately 20,000 inmates, so already pf is reading by 20,000…meaning if they lie to us that the whole country has money than 20,000 inmates nishi kaya. And who in his right mind would vote for pf in prison kikikikik…anyway the way i look at things our brothers are 100000000% desperate hence they need to power to survive. But the good news is there is nothing permanent under the sun….they will go.
Zambia has approximately 20,000 inmates, so already pf is reading by 20,000…meaning if they lie to us that the whole country has more than 20,000 inmates nishi kaya. And who in his right mind would vote for pf in prison kikikikik…anyway the way i look at things our brothers are 100000000% desperate hence they need power to survive. But the good news is there is nothing permanent under the sun….they will go.
Prisoners will have prisons as their permanent addresses? Who is keeping their NRC while in prison? Some prisoners come from different constituencies, how are they going to vote? Keith Mukata comes from chilanga but is currently a ‘resident’ of Kabwe, where is he going to vote? How about those on death row , are they going to vote and then be hanged? This is a disaster!