ATTORNEY General Likando Kalaluka has applied to join a matter in which Dr Sishuwa Sishuwa and Chapter One Foundation have petitioned the Constitutional Court over the nomination of President Edgar Lungu as Presidential candidate on grounds that he has been elected into office twice.
According to an affidavit in support of summons for joinder of party to the proceedings, Kalaluka stated that the petition raised issues of public interest relating to the election of the President.
He added that President Lungu is the current President of Zambia with a public following and that it has become imperative that the Office of the Attorney General, being the custodian of public interest and chief legal advisor to the government, be joined to the proceedings.
Kalaluka noted that neither the petitioners nor the respondent (President Lungu) will be prejudiced by the granting of his application to join the proceedings.
In this matter, Dr Sishuwa and Chapter One Foundation have cited President Lungu as the respondent in the matter, seeking that his nomination be revoked as he has been declared winner of a Presidential election twice making him ineligible to stand in August 2021.
According to the petition, the petitioners, through their lawyers from Simeza, Sangwa and Associates, are seeking an order of certiorari that the nomination paper filed by the President with the returning officer and all documents in support of the nomination be removed into the Constitutional Court for purposes of quashing.
Chapter One Foundation and Dr Sishuwa also want a declaration that President Lungu having been elected, sworn into and held the office of President from January 25, 2015 to September 13, 2016 and having been declared winner of the 2016 election, sworn into and having held the office of the president from September 13, 2016 until the next President is elected under the 2021 election, is not eligible for nomination for election as President in the election set for August 12, 2021.
The duo contended that by virtue of having been elected, sworn in twice, President Lungu has contravened Article 106(3) of the Constitution by filing the nomination paper with the returning officer, supported by an affidavit stating that he is qualified for nomination as candidate for President for the election scheduled for August 12, 2021.
Meanwhile, Legal Resources Foundation Limited has discontinued a matter where it also petitioned the Constitutional Court for a declaration that President Lungu is not eligible for nomination for election as President in the upcoming elections having been elected, sworn into and held office twice.
This is according to a notice of discontinuance filed in the Constitutional Court by Simeza, Sangwa and Associates, Monday.
One Response
How can he do that? President Lungu is petitioned as candidate Lungu and not as President? The Attorney General is paid by the tax payer and not by the Patriotic Front.