Eastern Province Minister Makebi Zulu says President Edgar Lungu will be going for his second term of office in 2021 and not a third as purported by UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema.

Conducting a post-eligibility case analysis, when he featured on the PF interactive forum, Sunday, Zulu who is also Malambo PF member of parliament said President Lungu was constitutionally eligible to stand as President in 2021.

“I read something very disturbing where Mr Hakainde was saying ‘we are studying this judgment, we are using our collective wisdom to study this judgment…’ and then goes further to say ‘what we must learn is that no one is entitled to a third’. Then he goes further to say ‘when any arm of government fails to meet the aspirations of the people, there is what is called people power’… I wondered at that part where that ‘people power’ was and what meaning it is supposed to give to the public. But when he says no one is entitled to a third term, I agree with him, no one is entitled to a third term and the constitution itself has defined what a term is. In Article 106 (1), it says ‘a President shall be elected for a term of five years’. In the latter article, it defines what a term is, anything less than three years is not a term. So when he says ‘no one is entitled to a third term’, he’s right because the constitution has defined what a term is,” said Zulu.

“In this particular case, concerned citizens went to court, and they did put a question for the court to answer as to whether President Edgar Lungu would be entitled to stand in 2021 and the court has pronounced itself on this issue. The court having pronounced itself, it settles the matter, there is no Higher Court to appeal to, unless we are going to appeal to Heaven and the only way to do that is through prayer and possibly Jesus coming today and the world coming to end and there will not be an election in 2021. But as things stand, President Lungu is going to stand in 2021 because the Constitutional Court is the Court that decides with finality. There is an argument that was brought to my attention that the Constitutional Court did not mention President Lungu in the judgment so he must go for interpretation, but what is there to interpret? An interpretation only comes when there is an ambiguity in a matter.”