Mahakama ya kikatiba nchini Zambia imetupilia mbali kesi ya mgombea wa urais wa chama cha upinzani cha United Party for National Development Hakainde Hichilema na mgombea mwenza Geofrey Bwalya dhidi ya uchaguzi wa rais Edgar Lungu.
Katika uamuzi wa wengi ,jopo la majaji katika mahakama hiyo ya kikatiba liliamua kwamba mda wa mwisho uliowekwa kusikiliza kesi hiyo ulikuwa umekwisha.
Bwana Lungu alihifadhi kiti chake baada ya kujipatia zaidi ya asilimia 50 ya kura katika uchaguzi huo uliofanyika tarehe 11 mwezi Agosti.
Chama cha UPND cha mpinzani wake Hakainde Hichilema kilipinga matokeo hayo na kuwasilisha ombi la kuyapinga mnamo tarehe 19 mwezi Agosti.
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Zambia’s Constitutional Court dismissed a petition by opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema to nullify the Aug. 11 elections won by President Edgar Lungu, without the hearing having started.
Three of five judges ruled that a 14-day deadline for hearing the challenge that was filed Aug. 19 lapsed by midnight on Sept. 2, contradicting the court’s decision on that day to adjourn proceedings until Monday, when the trial would begin. Lungu will be inaugurated on Sept. 13, said Roland Msiska, secretary to the cabinet.
“Where the time for hearing a petition is limited, the court is bound,” Judge Anne Mwewa-Sitali said in Lusaka, the capital, reading the ruling. “Our position therefore is the petition stands dismissed for want of prosecution as at midnight” on Sept. 2.
Lungu was declared the winner of the Aug. 11 presidential election with 50.4 percent of the vote against Hichilema’s 47.6 percent, enough to avoid a run-off.
The opposition leader said the ruling Patriotic Front had colluded with the Electoral Commission of Zambia to manipulate the poll, a claim they both denied.
Lungu must preside over an economy that’s growing at its slowest pace since 1998 amid a slump in the price of copper that accounts for more than 70 percent of the country’s export earnings.
The country’s currency, the kwacha, weakened 0.8 percent to 9.83 per dollar as off 11:34 in Lusaka. Yields on the Zambia’s $1 billion of Eurobonds due April 2024 dropped 2 basis points to 8.95 percent.
Hichilema, flanked by his running mate Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba and former Acting President Guy Scott, declined to comment to reporters on the steps outside the court.
The petitioners only had themselves to blame for the delays that prevented the hearing from starting within the constitutionally stipulated timeframe, Mwewa-Sitali said. Hichilema’s lawyers had repeatedly raised preliminary issues, and took too long to serve the petition on the respondents, she said.
Hildah Chibomba, the president judge at the Constitutional Court, was one of the two judges that were against dismissing the petition, she said. On Friday around midnight she adjourned the hearing to Monday, allowing two days each for the petitioners and respondents to argue their cases.
Hichilema won the adjournment after asking for extra time to find new lawyers after his legal representatives left the case at around 8 p.m., saying they would not be able to get a fair trial in the two hours the court said they had to present their case.
Source:Bloomberg Markets
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