Legal games have characterized the beginning of the Constitutional Court’s hearing of a petition to determine Edgar Lungu’s eligibility to run for office after serving as president from January 2015 to August 2021.
This is a matter brought before the court by youth activist Michelo Chizombe who contends that Lungu was ineligible to contest the 2021 elections or any future elections for Zambia’s presidency.
Lungu seeks to address the Court
At the start of the trial before a bench consisting of seven judges, Lungu asked to be allowed to directly address the court.
His lawyer, Makebi Zulu, requested the court to adjourn the matter briefly. “Before this request or application is attended to, we request that we see and meet the court in chambers, so that we could raise the concerns whether this could have a bearing on this matter.”
Justice Margaret Munalula, who is the President of the Constitutional Court, allowed a short recess as the parties retreated to chambers.
Upon returning to open court, the bench refused Lungu to address the court and directed that any concerns or applications he had should be raised through his lawyers in open court.
Complaint against judges
Lungu filed a complaint to the Judicial Complaints Commission (JCC) against three of the Constitutional Court justices hearing his eligibility matter, alleging possible bias.
On September 25, Lungu wrote to the JCC complaining that for various reasons Justices Munalula, Arnold Shilimi, and Maria Kawimbe, the trio may be biased against him.
In response to his complaint, the JCC on September 26 advised him that the issues he raised ought to be brought before the same court hearing the matter as the JCC was not the correct forum for him to channel his concerns “at this stage if the proceedings in court.”
Lungu then asked the court to allow him to apply to have the three judges recuse themselves from hearing his eligibility matter.
Judge Munanlula ruled, “It is in the interest of justice that leave be granted to file the application. We order that the application be filed by 13:00 hours and the application will be heard by 14:00 hours today.”
Failure to file application & request to file out of time
On resumption of sitting, the court heard that Lungu had failed to file his application for recusal of the three judges citing insufficient time given to do so, load shedding the procedural obligations. Instead, his counsel applied to be allowed to file out of time on Monday, 30 September.
The petitioner and the other respondents—the Electoral Commission of Zambia, the Attorney General, and the Solicitor General—objected to the application.
After hearing submissions from all the parties, the application was granted and the hearing is set for October 3 before a 7-judge bench.
