Socialist Party first vice-president and general secretary Cosmas Musheke Musumali has said there is political interference in the operation of the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ).
Dr. Musumali said the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) was working within the “political wheels of power” when it ruled that Bowman Lusambo and Joseph Malanji could not contest elections in Kabushi and Kwacha.
ECZ last month rejected the nomination from Mr. Malanji and Mr. Lusambo on account that they disqualified from contesting their former seats after nullification of the Kwacha and Kabushi seat respectively.
But the Constitutional Court this week ruled that Bowman Lusambo and Joseph Malanji are eligible to re-contest the Kabushi and Kwacha parliamentary by elections respectively.
Mr. Lusambo and Mr. Malanji had challenged in court the Electoral Commission of Zambia’s decision to reject their nomination to re-contest the Kabushi and Kwacha seat respectively.
Speaking on HOT FM’s Hot Seat radio programme following a ruling by the Constitutional Court that overturned the decisions, Dr Musumali accused the government of political interference in the electoral process.
Lusambo and Malanji are now free to contest the seats.
He said political interference is killing ECZ.
“ECZ rushed to make a decision and it’s a tricky situation that we find ourselves in. What is the ECZ going to do now? The ConCourt is saying, the situation as it stands, there was no fairness in it. So what is going to be the response of the ECZ?” Dr Musumali asked.
“What is killing the ECZ is the political interference and we suspect, in these hurriedly made decisions, a tragic decision that was made . . . they were working under political interference.”
Dr Musumali said the ECZ decision was obviously rushed and made on flimsy grounds, citing the “grade 12 certificate” argument against Malanji as a case in point.
“The issue (for Malanji’s case) was not the grade 12 certificate, but that is the one that was brought up. And it was brought up in a way that it even caught his lawyers by surprise. If that was the issue, Malanji would have been given time to bring the certificate and show it to the court.”
He accused the UPND government of taking revenge against the ECZ for the way it had been treated in the past.
“The UPND suffered a lot due to some of the decisions made by the ECZ, but you don’t take revenge. You don’t come to power with anger. That anger, because you don’t like the people at the ECZ or as an institution, there was a need to start a dialogue, to start getting the people at the ECZ to work a certain way. Political interference makes professionalism impossible, and that is what we are seeing in the ECZ.
“We shouldn’t throw away the ECZ, because we need it, but what we need is to improve the professionalism. What is killing the ECZ is political interference.”
Dr Musumali said the decisions over Lusambo and Malanji would have been different if the Commission was professional.
“We have always as the Socialist Party raised issues against some of the decisions of the ECZ. The ECZ is an important institution in our democratic process and we want it to function in a professional way. In the past, we have made our reservations known. What was going wrong with the ECZ. But the ECZ has been an institution that we have had a dialogue with, we have supported some of its decisions,” he said.
Dr Musumali said the Socialist Party supported efforts to modernise the ECZ, although he noted that it had been at “half capacity” recently.
“When you talk about the digitisation of voting and electoral voting, we are behind it. The idea of getting people in prisons to go and vote, we supported that. The thinking that even Zambians in the diaspora can actually vote in 2026, we are for that, we are behind it. So there are some new innovations of the ECZ that we support.”
Dr. Musumali said ECZ was operating at half capacity after the departure of key personal.
He said due to chief electoral officer Patrick Nshindano leaving and chairperson Esau Chulu’s contract not being renewed, the ECZ was now functioning at half capacity.
Four candidates filed their nomination in the Kabushi election while five candidates managed to file their nomination in Kwacha Constituency last month.
ECZ has set 15th September, 2022 as the date for the two parliamentary by elections.
Dr. Musumali echoed the comment made by his President Fred M’membe hours after the Constitutional Court ruling.
Dr. M’membe welcomed the Constitution Court ruling that has declared Bowman Lusambo and Joseph Malanji eligible to re-contest the Kabushi and Kwacha parliamentary by elections respectively.
Dr M’membe said the Constitutional Court has redeemed itself after wrongfully nullifying the Kwacha and Kabushi parliamentary seats.
He vowed that the Socialist Party will do everything possible to ensure that Mr Malanji and Mr Lusambo win back the seats that were unjustly and unfairly taken away from them..
But electoral expert McDonald Chipenzi said the Constitutional Court judgement is not convincing but must be respected as it helps in the legal reform agenda of the electoral process.
Mr. Chipenzi said the idea of nullification of an election is to fight electoral corruption and punish offenders by not allowing them stand again the life of that parliament or council.
Surely the concourt judgement was not convincing! What purpose did the nullification of the seats serve when the perpetrators of the electoral malpractices can go back and contest the same seat and enjoy the same advantage that lead to the nullification.? If those activities of violence and bribing can not allow for disqualification I shudder to think what should warrant a disqualification – maybe killing the opponent! The concourt for all its endeveours and sometimes fervour just adds to obfuscation rather than clarity which we seek from them.
Well said………
Watch, none of the clique supporters can answer this………
All they come up with is UPND are afraid …………????
Alfred – That was not what the Concourt was asked to do…the Concourt does not make the laws they just interprete them for you.
Let’s stop confusing nullification and disqualification. Your exam results, for example, can be nullified but exams council can still allow you to resit. In Malanji’s case, his seat was unfairly nullified by concort, he had no other recourse. Disqualification would be unfair because he was not given fair trial to prove he had a certificate and neither was he found guilty. For Lusambo, he was found guilty by association. That’s not a reason to disqualify him. Dishing out out money is happening under UPND as well. Since UPND candidates want a fair election, you face each other fairly. Otherwise you’re also no better than them if elections go ahead without the two.
What purpose did the nullification of the seats serve when the perpetrators of the electoral malpractices can go back and contest the same seat and enjoy the same advantage that lead to the nullification. Ithink you got it wrong. Where is it guaranteed that they will enjoy the same advantage?
The elections were nullified because of malpractices. The participants are free to re-join the race but with no malpractices.
Turn up to Vote – You’re still complaining ..you clearly state in your sentence that its the seats that were nullified not the candidates … this is not like let me cite Charlotte Scott vs Margaret Mwanakatwe where the winning candidate was being challenged for her continued stay. You should lobby your MPs to amend the laws I too dont like them stop complaining like toddlers and get on with it.
I suppose This is for law experts, but………
We know electoral laws were broken……….
NATO force violence and bribery used……..
We want to know the consequences of breaking the law,…………..
That is another case altogether. Noone stops any citizen from filing a complaint
This is like being caught with exam leaked papers before the exam………..
Being suspended from the exam , then demanding to sit the same exam again……..
Where is the deterence ??
@ Spaka good point. Surely a law without punishment or deterrence is meaningless and hopeless as no one will take it serious.
How about if the rules are vague on resiting …do you blame the candidate? You guys are simply making noises on this matter
@Tarino, we are talking about laws not rules. Laws are usually found void for vagueness if, after setting some requirement or punishment, the law does not specify what is required or what conduct is punishable. In this case the constitution can not be vague because it sets out the punishment’s for those who cause vacancies in parliament by way of disqualification due to electoral malpractice. However, what is debatable is whether the concourt judgements are convincing or contributing to enhancing the rule of the law. The rule of law requires that law breakers are punished.
He gave the example about resitting for examinations and I am responding in that context. I detest the candidates but there is nothing stopping them from contesting I am afraid…like I always go to your MPs lobby them to amend these laws instead of complaining.
No it’s not
Timing of certain decisions can be costly.
These political parties are just dullards always complaining UPND was like this now they are in Ruling they are comfortable because it works in their favour…Parties like Socialist Party should be making alliances and lobbying for the independence of ECZ like the President promised but we know Fred Mmembe has his own agendas and can not really work with anyone because he has rubbed people the otherway and burnt bridges in the past.
mmembe’s party is archaic
COMMENTS RESERVED UNTIL AFTER THE INAUGURATIONS OF PRESIDENT-ELECT LOURENCO OF ANGOLA & PRESIDENT-ELECT RUTO OF KENAYA – WHERE GOD HAS ABUNDANTLY BLESSED ANGOLANS & KENYANS RESPECTIVELY.
COMMENTS RESERVED UNTIL AFTER THE INAUGURATIONS OF PRESIDENT-ELECT LOURENCO OF ANGOLA & PRESIDENT-ELECT RUTO OF KENYA – WHERE GOD HAS ABUNDANTLY BLESSED ANGOLANS & KENYANS RESPECTIVELY
The Malanji Case
Mulenga petitioned for electoral malpractices. His witnesses turn hostile.
Next appearance the judge replaced the case of malpractices with that of lack of grade 12 certificate
Judge doesn’t ask Malanji to produce his certificate to be verified by the Examination Council of Zambia but opts to nullify the election out right.
The Concourt acknowledged that Malanji had a grade 12 certificate but proceeds to confirm the nullification of the election.
In all fairness does this make any sense at all.
Lusambo, that is a different case.
There is political interference in the operation of the Electoral Commission of Zambia. Only the kids at Kindergarten dont know this.
The socialist party 1st vp should preferably go back to school and be taught again by our gllant teachers. What people should undestan is that each institution in zambia is given an act ôf parliant which mst be follewed and be imlemented as stated. No one else is allowed to alter, reduce ôr add anything in form a correction, suggetion but only the parliament can do that. All of us heard about the sincere concluding statement by the concort ” Even the concort cant ämend any part of the consitittion including the lacunnaers, only the parley can do so.” S blame nt the ECZ because it just faithful folloed and implemented the regulations as guided by the act as writen. and no any ammendment has ever been. made since is enactment in 2016
The socialist party 1st vp should preferably go back to school and be taught again by our gllant teachers. What people should undestan is that each institution in zambia is given an act ôf parliant which mst be follewed and be imlemented as stated. No one else is allowed to alter, reduce ôr add anything in form a correction, suggetion but only the parliament can do that. All of us heard about the sincere concluding statement by the concort ” Even the concort cant ämend any part of the consitittion including the lacunnaers, only the parley can do so.” S blame nt the ECZ because it just faithful folloed and implemented the regulations as guided by the act as writen. and no any ammendment has ever been. made since is enactment in 2016
ECZ this is an eye openner to say pull up your soaks or one day one of you wll be jailed for crosse misconduct.