By PERPETUAL  SICHIKWENKWE –
THE Lusaka High Court has declared Defence and Justice Minister Edgar Lungu as the president of the Patriotic Front (PF) and the sole candidate on the party ticket in the January 20, 2015 election.
Judge Mungeni Mulenga quashed all the decisions made at the second PF general conference held on December 1, 2014, including the election of Matero Member of Parliament (MP) Miles Sampa as the PF president.
She said the order of injunction granted to PF national chairperson Inonge Wina that Mr Lungu is the president of PF as well as the candidate for next year’s election was permanent.
Former PF secretary general Bridget Atanga and her agents were also restrained in perpetuity from purporting to have elected somebody else as party president of the PF other than Mr Lungu.
Ms Justice Mulenga said in a consent judgment for Ms Wina and the newly-appointed PF secretary general Davies Chama yesterday that the general conference of December 1, 2014 at which Mr Sampa was purportedly elected party president was, therefore, null and void.
She instead confirmed the election of Mr Lungu at the PF general conference held on November 30, 2014 at Mulungushi Rock of Authority in Kabwe.
“That the order of injunction granted on the 1st December be and is hereby made interlocutory and the defendants, whether by themselves, agents, candidates , superiors or subordinates be and hereby restrained in perpetuity from purporting to have been elected as party president or presidential candidate of the Patriotic Front other than honourable Mr Edgar Chagwa Lungu,” Ms Justice Mulenga said.
Ms Wina and Mr Chama are represented by Messrs Mosha and Company, Messrs Palan and George Advocates, Messrs Mwemba Chasi and Partners and HH Ndhlovu and Company.
The lawyers earlier filed an affidavit in support of expert summons to have Ms Atanga removed from the court records as PF secretary general and be replaced by Mr Chama.
Ms Wina stated that she was aware that the dismissal of Ms Atanga as secretary general of the party had affected her representative capacity in which she was sued.
Mr Chama was the new secretary general of the PF and that there would be no prejudice to PF if the order was made ex parte considering that the pending applications would be heard in three days’ time and Mr Chama would be given an opportunity to respond only if he was joined to the proceedings.
Ms Justice Mulenga replaced Ms Atanga with Mr Chama as a defendant in the matter.
Meanwhile, Acting President Guy Scott and Mr Lungu have been removed as parties from the court proceedings in which a Lusaka politician Newton Ng’uni sued them together with Attorney General Musa Mwenye over the transfer of presidential powers.
Lusaka High Court Judge Gertrude Chawatama said Dr Scott and Mr Lungu were acting in their capacities as public servants when they transferred the powers from Mr Lungu to Dr Scott following the death of President Michael Sata on October 28, 2014.
Former deputy Education minister Mr Ngu’ni sued Dr Scott, Mr Lungu and Mr Mwenye over the transfer of presidential powers, seeking a reversal.
Mr Mwenye later applied to have Dr Scott and Mr Lungu removed because it was him who was supposed to be sued and not the two because they were civil servants.