SOCIALIST Party president Fred M’membe says President Edgar Lungu has no constitutional power to cancel next year’s general election if he gets disqualified.
Featuring on Diamond Television on Sunday, Dr M’membe said the Constitution provides for an extension of the nomination period to allow for the affected political party to find another candidate.
When the moderator asked him if President Lungu would not use Article 52(6) of the Constitution to cancel the election if disqualified, Dr M’membe, an advocate of the High Court of Zambia, said the Head of State had no power to decide that.
Article 52(6) states that, “Where a candidate dies, resigns or becomes disqualified in accordance with Article 70, 100 or 153 or a court disqualifies a
candidate for corruption or malpractice, after the close of nominations and before the election date, the Electoral Commission shall cancel the election and require the filing of fresh nominations by eligible candidates and elections shall be held within thirty days of the filing of the fresh nominations.”
“It’s not him (President Lungu) to decide that, the Constitution is very clear. If during that period somebody is disqualified, dies and so on, after the nominations, definitely the elections are postponed for another 30 days or so; it’s normal,” Dr M’membe explained. “It will not be him to cancel that, but it will disadvantage his party because they’ll have to find a new candidate who will only have 30 days to prepare. And the process even of choosing that candidate may be complicated for the party, it takes time to choose leaders in a party.”
He maintained that President Lungu does not in any way qualify to stand for a third time.
He wondered what President Lungu was looking for in his push for a third term.
“He’s not eligible, period. If he was eligible, he wouldn’t be President today, Guy Scott would have been president. If he was eligible, Guy Scott as vice-president would have assumed the position of president. Under the clause that they want to rely on, Guy Scott would have continued. And that term would have not counted as a full term. So, he would have managed to go beyond 10 years if he was elected,” he said. “It is a fact that he doesn’t qualify, but he wants to push on. The nine years or so he has governed will not be enough, he still wants to continue. For what? What for? What is he going to do in another five years? Even if it is given to him, that he has not done in nine years? What is he going to do, this plan [Economic Recovery Programme] that he was launching yesterday (Thursday)?”
He said what the country needed was total transformation from capitalism to socialism.
“What this country needs is a revolutionary programme to transform the way things are done. We have been on this path since 1891 when Cecil Rhodes seized control of this territory and instituted the capitalist programme,” Dr M’membe said. “We need a change, fundamental change; not just any change next year but real change, fundamental change, revolutionary change. If we don’t, poverty will deepen, despair is going to deepen, conflict is going to deepen.”
When challenged that he made Michael Sata president so he could not detach himself from PF’s mismanagement of the country, Dr M’membe wondered how possible that was.
He however asked if it was a bad thing to have Sata as president of the country.
“And if I did, is it a bad thing? Was Michael a bad president? My vote alone made Michael [president]? I was such a powerful person who would fool all Zambians to vote for Michael? The Zambian people believed Michael, they took time to scrutinise him and they believed him,” Dr M’membe said. “Today, the same people who were denouncing Michael, they’re the ones enjoying in the PF government. They were saying nga mwavotela Sata, lishilu, akabushe nkondo mu (if you vote for Sata, he is mad, he will cause war in) Zambia. They were saying nga mwavotela Sata, abaume bakalaupana na baume banabo, abanakashi bakalaupana na banakashi banabo (if you vote for Sata, men will be marrying fellow men, women will be marrying fellow women); they’re today in the PF government. They were in MMD then, they were ministers in MMD, [but] they moved to a party of Michael Sata.”
Dr M’membe explained the abuse he suffered together with Sata at the hands of the MMD government.
“Yes, when Michael was sometimes being insulted, I was being insulted with him. When he was being attacked, I was being attacked with him. The same people who sponsored the late brother of ours Chanda Chimba [III], to carry on with a programme on ZNBC Television which was anchored on Michael and myself… we were caricatured in all sorts of manners. Yes, I shared that humiliation with him,” said Dr M’membe. “I had my own fair share of Michael’s humiliation; it was given to me. The governance that the PF has today is not mine. Did I support Mr Lungu’s candidature? No, I didn’t. I supported Michael. Today, we are even being told that Michael’s shoes have become too small for Mr Lungu. You heard that statement from a minister of government, someone who was brought into politics by Michael himself, she’s saying that.”