ECZ, its officials in contempt – PF

By GIDEON NYENDWA

THE Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ), its chairperson Mwangala Zaloumis and her Commissioners are in contempt of court for announcing the date for a parliamentary by-election in Kawambwa when the seat is still an active matter in the High Court, Raphael Nakacinda has said.
And Mutotwe Kafwaya, the Lunte Patriotic Front (PF) Member of Parliament, Mutotwe Kafwaya yesterday told Vice President Mutale Nalumango that it was lawlessness of the highest order that the ECZ had been allowed to commit contempt with impunity by announcing a date of the Kawambwa by-election when the seat was still a subject of the court proceedings.
Mr Nakacinda, the PF secretary general says the lawlessness and impunity being exhibited by the ECZ has potential to plunge the country into conflict and turmoil, all in the name of the UPND’s desire to accrue numbers in Parliament.
Mr Nakacinda said as far as the PF was concerned, what the ECZ had done was contempt of court and would therefore be challenged in the courts of law.
Mr Nakacinda said the ECZ with its officials were not above the law and should have the decorum of respecting the independence of the courts.
“The level of impunity at which the ECZ is disregarding court orders is not only shocking but also shameful. There is a substantive stay on that matter which meant that the matters was still active in court and ECZ is setting a date for a by election is a serious abuse of power. The lawlessness the ECZ is engaging in has the potential to plunge the country into serious conflict and turmoil,” Mr Nakacinda said. There is no institution that is above the law…not even the ECZ. Not even the President is above the law. When there is a court order, as there is in the Kawambwa seat to stay any possible by-election in the constituency, the courts must be respected,” he said.
Mr Nakacinda said the PF was taking the matter to court and commence contempt proceedings against the ECZ along with its officials, including its chairperson Ms Zaloumis, because they were working at defranchising Mr Chilangwa from representing him electorates.
“All of us, including the UPND should be propagating fairness and equity. The UPND and its ECZ are bastadising Zambia’s electoral process and they cannot be allowed to continue. This process they are undertaking is fraudulent and illegal and those UPND cadres at ECZ should know that their time for reckoning is coming. They are raping our electoral process and one day they will account…and they will account for their actions,” Mr Nakacinda said.
And Mr Kafwaya yesterday demanded that Vice President Mutale Nalumango should tell the nation that the UPND had declared the Judiciary and the courts moribund and did not matter and that the country was being governed at the whims and caprices of individuals.
Mr Kafwaya, who rose on urgent matter without notice in the House was questioning whether the Vice President, Nalumango was in order to allow the ECZ to announce a by-election in Kawambwa when she knew that there were court proceeding that were on going.
“Why don’t you just tell us that according to UPND, courts are nothing and they don’t matter so that Zambians could know how to resolve these problems? We know what you did in the Kabushi and Kwacha by-elections. You are repeating the same judicial transgression with impunity. The Kawambwa seat is a matter that is still active in court and you have allowed the ECZ to announce the date for a by-election in total disregard to the court order for a stay” Mr Kafwaya said.
He said Ms. Nalumango was aware that there was a stay on elections in Kawambwa constituency yet THE ECZ that fell under her office had told the nation that there was going to be a by-election in a constituency where there was a stay.
Yesterday, ECZ set December 20 2024, as the date for the Kawambwa constituency by-election.