UPND president Hakainde Hichilema says the Zambian Judiciary has a lot to learn from the Malawian Judiciary which on Monday nullified the 2019 Presidential election due to widespread irregularities.
Speaking to journalists in Lusaka after visiting former vice-president Dr Guy Scott, Tuesday, Hichilema said Africa should be proud of Malawian judges for delivering justice.
“Many of us in this region are proud that you still have a Judiciary that is able to do what is right for their people; we must be proud of that. We understand that they went through temptations, a lot of temptations and they withstood these temptations; money, other things, we hear were thrown at them. But they understood why they are on the Constitution Court because Judiciary, courts should be the last place of recourse where we go to seek justice,” Hichilema said.
“Injustices are done every day in our elections, we know it. Here in Zambia, 2015, 2016 we know that; in 2016, our matter was not even heard yet the Bill of Rights is clear if citizens are aggrieved about anything they have a right to go to court and any court of competent jurisdiction has has an obligation to hear [them]. It didn’t happen in this country; it has happened in Malawi. We are so proud of the Constitutional Court bench; I hope we can all learn something from that ruling because you cannot continue cheating the people, the very people that gave you an opportunity to serve with them especially in those roles. So congratulations to the opposition in Malawi.”
He further urged Zambians to emulate Malawian voters who never allowed their votes to be manipulated.
“One thing we learn from Malawi is that they came together; the opposition came together. Here, we have some opposition that are surrogates of the ruling party; who are used to abuse fellow oppositions but there, Dr (Lazarus) Chagwera, Dr Sailas Chilima, and others came together for a joint petition to save the people of Malawi; it is another lesson that we Zambians must learn,” said Hichilema.
“More importantly, it is the Malawian citizens, the Malawian voter who did not allow their vote to be manipulated. When their vote was manipulated, they showed it; they went to the streets to express their displeasure on how somebody had stolen their votes. They did it for months; it encouraged the Judiciary. So we can see the point here. The fight must be fought from different angles.”
4 Responses
Meanwhile Prof Mutharika has clearly indicated hat he will petition to the Supreme Court in that country because he strongly believes that the Constitutional Court misdirected itself during the legal process. I hope you now see the challenges that lies in election petition. It is surely not on the people to come together but it is up to the parties aggrieved to put in place the needed evidence to present to the court and above all prove the latter beyond reasonable doubt that the election were riddled with fraud. Mwata the drama is far from over in Malawi
No, HH you have your wires crossed. The Malawian case was totally different; with different evidence. You had your chance to petition; but you wasted time demanding this and that, till the prescribed hearing period expired!! You burnt your own fingers; even if you may have had a justifiable case. Period.
For Zambia Lessons from the Malawi Con Court election ruling should not be for the Judiciary alone. Lessons should ideally extend to politicians, citizens and the legal fraternity.
a) politicians: our politicians should learn to be selfless in pursuit of a national agenda
b) citizens: desist from being polarised tribally and politically
c) legal fraternity (lawyers): should be professional and not driven by benefits from political inclinations
HH,u are a real president,exellent speech, in fact u are already president waiting for confirmation in 2021,u have my vote.