{"id":11300,"date":"2021-12-11T14:36:49","date_gmt":"2021-12-11T14:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/the-speaker-is-undermining-the-judiciary-unza-don"},"modified":"2021-12-11T15:14:29","modified_gmt":"2021-12-11T15:14:29","slug":"the-speaker-is-undermining-the-judiciary-unza-don","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/the-speaker-is-undermining-the-judiciary-unza-don","title":{"rendered":"The Speaker is undermining the Judiciary \u2013 UNZA Don"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zambia. <\/strong><\/span>A University of Zambia lecturer says it is lawless and wrong for Speaker of the National Assembly Nelly Mutti to bar opposition PF MPs whose seats were nullified by the High Court from attending parliament when their appeals to the Constitutional Court remain undetermined.<\/p>\n

Responding to questions on Twitter, Dr. Sishuwa Sishuwa urged the Speaker to familiarise herself with the ruling of the ConCourt in the case of Margaret Mwanakatwe v Charlotte Scott where justice Enoch Mulembe ruled that \u201cwhere there is an appeal, the law, as per constitutional provisions, has stated that the seat only becomes vacant after the final determination of the Constitutional Court\u201d stands.<\/p>\n

He argued that the Speaker made a mistake to venture into constitutional interpretation using the law within herself, and urged her to accept that she made a mistake and reverse her decision. Below are a series of the academic\u2019s tweets on the subject as monitored by Lusaka Times.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision by the Speaker of the National Assembly to bar MPs whose election were nullified by the High Court from attending Parliament until their appeals to the Constitutional Court are determined is wrong and undermines the judiciary and the principle of separation of powers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ConCourt ruled in 2016 in the case of Mwanakatwe v Charlotte Scott that by operation of Article 73 (4) of the constitution, an appeal to the ConCourt acts as a stay of the decision of the High Court. This means until the case relating to an election petition is disposed of in the Constitutional Court, the matter is considered active or undetermined, and the affected MPs have the right to remain in parliament. Nelly Mutti either did not read the judgement in the Mwanakatwe case or is out to undermine the judiciary, which would make her the female version of Patrick Matibini!<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you remember, in 2016, the High Court nullified the election of Mwanakatwe as MP for Lusaka Central constituency. Mwanakatwe then appealed against the verdict to the Constitutional Court. While waiting for her appeal case to be determined, she applied for a stay of the High Court\u2019s decision so that she could remain in parliament. The ConCourt via a single judge, Enoch Mulembe, ruled that there was no need for her to seek a stay because her appeal served as one and allowed her to remain in parliament until the matter was conclusively decided by the Constitutional Court. This is the precedence on this subject, one that may explain why the affected MPs this time did not apply for a stay.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe purpose of that constitutional provision that allows an MP to remain in parliament pending the determination of their petition was to prevent the creation of a vacuum in the office of MP while the case remained undetermined by the courts. If the High Court verdict was final, despite an appeal, the result would have been a vacancy in the affected constituency.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow can you imagine a scenario where a by-election is held after the High Court nullifies a sitting MP\u2019s election only for the ConCourt to overturn the ruling of the lower court on appeal by the affected MP but after the by-election has already taken place? There will be chaos.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no finality to an election petition decided by the High Court, once an appeal against the ruling has been filed in the ConCourt, until after the determination of that appeal by the superior court. By making that ruling, the Speaker either genuinely misread the law, is unforgivably ignorant of the fact that the word \u2018determination\u2019 as used in Article 73 (4) has been interpreted by the ConCourt to include the appeal, or is simply incompetent.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer main mistake was to venture into constitutional interpretation using the law within herself. Ati \u201cpractical application\u201d monga ni kumushi pa nsaka? The Speaker should read the Mwanakatwe v Charlotte ruling by Enoch Mulembe (l doubt she would have come to that ruling if she had read the case), swallow her pride and reverse her ruling. That would be the right thing to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless the ConCourt vacates its decision in the Charlotte v Mwanakatwe case (and for that to happen, someone will have to apply to the full bench to reverse the ruling of a single judge), its decision that \u201cwhere there is an appeal, the law, as per constitutional provisions, has stated that the seat only becomes vacant after the final determination of the constitutional court\u201d stands.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can criticise the ConCourt for its bad decisions, but that is the institution with the power to interpret the constitution. It is lawless for another institution, the Speaker, or indeed anyone else, to assume the Court\u2019s functions for whatever reasons, or ignore its decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Zambia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zambia. A University of Zambia lecturer says it is lawless and wrong for Speaker of the National Assembly Nelly Mutti to bar opposition PF MPs whose seats were nullified by the High Court from attending parliament when their appeals to the Constitutional Court remain undetermined. Responding to questions on Twitter, Dr. Sishuwa Sishuwa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":11299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,8,12,16],"tags":[234,235,233],"class_list":["post-11300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-zambia","tag-zambia"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Speaker is undermining the Judiciary \u2013 UNZA Don - Zambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A University of Zambia lecturer says it is lawless and wrong for Speaker of the National Assembly Nelly Mutti to bar opp ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/the-speaker-is-undermining-the-judiciary-unza-don\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Speaker is undermining the Judiciary \u2013 UNZA Don\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A University of Zambia lecturer says it is lawless and wrong for Speaker of the National Assembly Nelly Mutti to bar opp ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/the-speaker-is-undermining-the-judiciary-unza-don\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Zambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-11T14:36:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-12-11T15:14:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2021\/12\/img-61b4c00f43b52.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"635\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/the-speaker-is-undermining-the-judiciary-unza-don#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/the-speaker-is-undermining-the-judiciary-unza-don\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"The Speaker is undermining the Judiciary \u2013 UNZA Don\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-11T14:36:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-11T15:14:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/the-speaker-is-undermining-the-judiciary-unza-don\"},\"wordCount\":805,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/the-speaker-is-undermining-the-judiciary-unza-don#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2021\/12\/img-61b4c00f43b52.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Zambia\",\"Zambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/the-speaker-is-undermining-the-judiciary-unza-don#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/the-speaker-is-undermining-the-judiciary-unza-don\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/the-speaker-is-undermining-the-judiciary-unza-don\",\"name\":\"The Speaker is undermining the Judiciary \u2013 UNZA Don - 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