PETITION UPDATE: CONCOURT REJECTS LAWYER LEWIS MOSHO’S APPLICATION TO JOIN PRESIDENT LUNGU’S ELIGIBILITY CASE
THE Constitutional Court has declined to join Lusaka lawyer Lewis Mosho to a matter in which the Legal Resources Foundation limited, historian and political commentator Sishuwa Sishuwa and Chapter One Foundation limited have petitioned President Edgar Lungu for abrogating the law by filing in his nomination papers as the PF presidential candidate for the August 12, 2021 elections after being sworn into office as President twice.
In an affidavit in support of ex-parte summons for an order for leave to be joined to the proceedings as an interested party, Mosho stated that the petitioners’ petition was an invitation of the court to depart from its earlier interpretation of the law surrounding the subject matter which is not only an attack on the constitution but also on how the court carries out its Constitutional mandate, a situation which called for the defense of the Constitution.
“I intend to raise important Constitutional questions that have arisen in this matter for determination by this court as the issues raised in the petition have already been settled by the court,” said Mosho.
When the matter came up for hearing of Mosho’s application, justice Mungeni Mulenga dismissed the application as he did not show sufficient interest to be joined to the proceedings.
According to their petition, the petitioners’ contention is that the Head of State has been sworn into office twice because he was not a vice-president of the country when he concluded late presindent Micheal Sata’s term following the latter’s death as ruled by the Constitutional Court in the Dan Pule case.
They want a declaration that President Lungu’s nomination for election to the office of Presindent in this year’s election contravenes Article 106(3) of the constitution and the said nomination is null and void.
The petitioners are further seeking an order of certiorari that the the nomination papers filed by President Lungu with the returning officer of the Electoral Commission of Zambia and all documents in support of his nomination for the election of the office of Presindent in this year’s elections be removed forthwith from the Constitutional Court for purposes of quashing