Socialist Party (SP) Vice President Cosmas Musumali says the country’s entire legal system is in a crisis because of the lacunas in the constitution, especially regarding the laws in line with the conducting of elections.
Mr Musumali stated that the happenings in both Kwacha and Kabushi constituencies have huge consequences that are painting a terrible picture on Zambian Democracy.
“Our support is to the democratic principles that ought to be respected, that’s where our support is and this case for the By-Elections in Kwacha Constituency and Kabushi Constituency it so happens that in our analysis long before all these issues and cases went before the Court, there was injustice that we are not going to be part of,” he stated
Mr Musumali noted that the laws and constitution leave a lot of gaps but on the other hand there is no law that is perfect in the sense that it doesn’t leave some issues hanging, its now the issue if interpretation and that’s where it is failing because even in the interpretation from the judiciary point of view which is a highly politicized judiciary then there will always be problems like the one being faced today.
He added that the country has a judiciary that cannot be cited as being fair, impartial and that’s one of the problems, as we also have political process and political parties that are going in and don’t want to lose elections at any cost as they are ready destroy the whole legal framework of the country for the sake of winning elections.
Mr Musumali disclosed that again, Lawyers are saying that this issue is still before the High Court and they can’t proceed with the elections if this issue is still before the High Court as it is contempt of court, if this goes ahead it sets a precedent that in future it’s going to destabilize the whole electoral process and the entire management of how elections are managed in Zambia.
“This is a red line that should not have been crossed, for it has consequences for the future and it’s also about the voters and Zambian citizens as a lot of them feel like they are being denied their choice,” he said
“So, here is a situation where even the Constitution Court is not unison and agreeable, not everyone there agrees that this is the best way to move, we have some of our best constitutional lawyers who are saying this is a disaster, we also have people on the ground that are questioning what is happening as they are confused and if you ask a lot of Zambians just not on the Copperbelt but any other province if they understand what is going on the answer is no, they are confused and don’t know understand that,” he explained
He said that tomorrow or even today, if one of the candidates decides to write to the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) stating that they want to withdraw and ten days later the same candidate shows up to say they have receded their decision, this is chaos, which is setting a precedent that is going to cause havoc in the country, as it is wrong from whichever angle one looks at from.
“How many times can you withdraw and still come back, there’s no law that talks about that, even the law on withdrawing is not as clear and that’s where the problem comes in, our law itself has a lot of lacunas, gaps and the interpretations are so diverse that we find even the Constitutional Court is not interpreting using one line because if you get two or three members of the Constitutional Court they will be one who will see the situation very differently and we have seen that over the past weeks,” he said
Mr Musumali mentioned that their party did not file in any candidate to contest in both in Kwacha and Kabushi Constituencies because they are not opportunists.
“If we were opportunistic, we were going to stand on this injustice that was there but we didn’t take that move so even today we still feel if something is wrong, it remains wrong,” Mr Musumali mentioned
I didn’t know that HH with all his billions would be so desperate…. don’t be surprised if he gets rid of the two terms system.
….its now the issue if interpretation and that’s where it is failing because even in the interpretation from the judiciary point of view which is a highly politicized judiciary then there will always be problems like the one being faced today.
This part of the constitution seems to be above the headss of our current honorable judges..Lacunea of this nature can best the resolved by academia,perhaps even by judges learned in jurisprudence short of a call for constitution amendment.Lacunea can be remedied by a judge making his own original and reasonable ruling,virtualy writing his own law and thus, precedent.Otherwise,we will keep rotating.Even suits for contempt of court will be rediculous
*,,,,Even suits for contempt of court will be ludicrous
By the way which president signed up on this constitution???? I remember some dude at the stadium signing it. The whole damn constitution should have been re looked at. Now we are in such a mess
I agree that the constitution put up by the PF is full of lacunas because of the way they single handedly enacted the last constitution but I disagree that the SP is not fielding any candidates in Kabushi and Kwacha because they are not opportunists, the reality on the ground is that some of these tuma opposition parties just exist on paper, no MP, no councilor, not won any bye elections but full of running commentaries and vocabularies
The constitution especially the electoral act is very clear and has no lacnnas. The problem is with the corrupt cartel that wants thing to continue in corrupt ways. From the word go, the ecz has been using the act which was made and approved by the pf govt. To me it is very clear and it does not require any interpretation by any laweyer before being used by ecz officia who are learned. All the so called cnfusions are all what corrption can do.
The matter of contention is the constitution ,the supreme law not electoral act
PF created the confusion and UPND is following suit.
Let PF eat their OWN medicine….!!
TTOO MICH CONFUSION ON THINGS THAT ARE STRAIGHT.PF took issues to court after Rejection of Malanji and Lusambo just to derail UPND. We all this trick.
This is the waste we have ever seen since independence.Can our judicialy come back to its sense before our country is destroyed by the so called learned people who are stingy and selfish,people with selfish gains.They are using divide and rule system. zambians are watching mind you.
Next you will be saying there are lacunas in the bible. Even the bible has attracted so many interpretations.
Admit it, the current horrible regime was lawless in opposition and thus no doubt they are lawless now. A lawless individual will see lacunas in the law just like a sinner will find the bible provocative; utterly misunderstood.
In the same light don’t allow a lawless nigga to draft and enact a piece of law because it will turn out to be problematic.
There is nothing wrong with the law but everything wrong with the current regime.
This misleadership must be allowed to tamper with the current constitution. It will be chaotic. Be warned again.