By PERPETUAL SICHIKWENKWE –
THE Constitutional Court has allowed the Attorney General to use another officer to depose an affidavit by the Judiciary informing the court that it has no space to accommodate ballot papers and other materials used in the August 11, 2016 elections.
This is in a petition where United Party for National Development (UPND) presidential candidate Hakainde Hichilema and his running mate Geoffrey Mwamba are demanding the nullification of the declaration of Edgar Lungu and Inonge Wina by the Electoral Commission of Zambia |(ECZ) as President-elect and Vice-President-elect respectively.
They have argued in their petition filed in the Constitutional Court that Mr Lungu and Ms Wina were fraudulently declared winner and the court should reverse the decision.
Among the preliminaries raised in the petition, the UPND asked the court to order that ballot papers and other materials used in the elections be preserved and kept in the custody of the court pending the determination of the petition.
But Constitutional Court registrar Kelvin Limbani on Thursday swore in an affidavit contending that the Judiciary had no space to accommodate the election materials, saying there was lack of accommodation as some judges and other Judiciary offices had no offices.
UPND lawyers objected to the application by Mr Limbani contending that an officer of the Constitutional Court could not swear in an affidavit because it would be bias.
Constitutional Court Judge Anna Sitali agreed with the UPND and expunged the affidavit from the records but advised the Attorney General, if so wished, to use the same content but ask the chief administrative officer of the judiciary to swear in the fresh affidavit.
Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court says it will only hear the application by Mr Lungu and Ms Wina’s lawyers to remove some of the portions of the petition after attending to an application by Mr Hichilema’s lawyers to amend the initial petition.
Lawyers representing Mr Hichilema and Mr Mwamba have filed an application seeking leave to amend the initial petition filed last Friday.
The matter has been adjourned to Monday for continued hearing.