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Brace yourselves for mass by-elections – Sata

Brace yourselves for mass by-elections – Sata
Written by Patson Chilemba and Laura Mushaukwa-Hamusute
Tuesday, December 23, 2008 12:28:21 PM

Zambians should brace themselves for mass parliamentary by-elections, Patriotic Front (PF) president Michael Sata declared yesterday.

And Lusaka High Court judge Gregory Phiri yesterday threw out an injunction by 20 PF members of parliament seeking an order to restrain Sata and secretary general Edward Mumbi from expelling them following their decision to participate in the National Constitution Conference (NCC).

But Kawambwa PF member of parliament Elizabeth Chitika said the rebel parliamentarians would appeal against judge Phiri's decision.

Commenting on judge Phiri's decision to throw out the rebel MPs' injunction, Sata expressed happiness that judgment went in the party's favour.

He said the ‘rebel’ MPs would now be dealt with properly.

"We shall go for massive by-elections. The country should brace itself for massive by-elections. The rebels have lost their case," said a jovial Sata, who was flanked by vice-president Dr Guy Scott.

On the move by the rebel MPs to appeal against the judgment, Sata responded: "Well, we have not been served with any document. They are very free to do, as they like. The Supreme Court is on recess. We shall see what happens. Once this has been done, there are a number of things to be done."

Judge Phiri threw out the injunction on grounds that the rebel MPs had failed to show that the injury they would suffer, if expelled, could not be atoned for in damages.

In this case, 26 PF members of parliament sued Sata and Mumbi seeking an injunction restraining the duo from expelling them from the party following their resolve to participate in the NCC. Later, six members of parliament discontinued their case against Sata and Mumbi, while the remaining 20 proceeded.

Sata's lawyer Bonaventure Mutale in his submissions argued that there was no basis in the case for the court to sustain the ex-parte interim injunction order of the nature complained of on grounds that it was well settled at law that injunctions could only be granted in certain circumstances.

Mutale also argued that the aggrieved MPs had failed to meet the threshold because their right to relief was not very clear on the basis that they were seeking declaratory orders or judgments that were normally not granted as a matter of course. He said the rebel MPs would not suffer any irreparable injury, which could not be atoned for by an award of damages.

In reply, the rebels' lawyer Mutakela Lisimba submitted that if Sata expelled his clients, they would suffer irreparable damage.

On behalf of the intervener in the matter, in this case the Attorney General, Solicitor General Dominic Sichinga contended that if the injunction was discharged, the Constitution making process would suffer a setback.

After analysing the pleadings by both parties in the matter, judge Phiri said according to the present authorities of the law, declaratory orders, judgments were discouraged when other reliefs were available. He said although he agreed with Sichinga on the public interest consideration in the matter, he did not agree that this consideration should take root at this stage of the proceedings because it could only be determined on the merits of the whole action at trial.

Judge Phiri said it was only after trial that the court could determine whether PF was democratic or not and whether the members of parliament would be denied their right to participate in party politics within their party.

He noted that the circumstance of this cause of action was extraordinary in that it was about a dispute between members of the same political club and that the dispute was about members' right to participate in the constitution-making process in compliance with the current law or to stay out as ordered by the defendants.

Judge Phiri observed that both the plaintiffs and the intervener had not sufficiently shown what irreparable injury would occur to the applicants in the event that their membership was withdrawn from the NCC before their rights were determined at trial.

He ruled that the plaintiffs had failed to satisfy him that the nature of the injury they would suffer could not be atoned for in damages which the court could easily quantify and award against the defendants in the event that the plaintiffs were successful in the main action.

It is against this background that judge Phiri discharged the injunction.

Labels: BY-ELECTIONS, COURTS, MPs, PF, SATA

posted by MrK @ 12:28 PM