Decision to postpone mayoral elections is within the law – Teta

Decision to postpone mayoral elections is within the law – Teta
Written by Chibaula Silwamba and Maluba Jere
Monday, December 22, 2008 8:50:41 AM

LOCAL government minister Benny Tetamashimba has defended his decision to postpone mayoral elections saying it is within the law and on strong grounds.

And Tetamashimba has accused the opposition Patriotic Front (PF) of causing anarchy by holding elections without town clerks and council secretaries as returning officers.

Meanwhile, PF has written to Attorney General Mumba Malila asking him to furnish them with a copy of the Statutory Instrument which has purportedly amended the provision Section 16 (2) in the local government Act to allow Tetamashimba postpone mayoral elections.

Speaking on ZNBC’s National Watch programme on Saturday, Tetamashimba said he issued a Statutory Instrument to postpone mayoral elections because he wanted councils to approve their budgets which were supposed to be incorporated in the 2009 national budget before conducting the elections.

“Everybody seems to be saying the law, the law! The law has been abrogated and so forth. I want to tell you that my ministry has the local government Act,” he said, adding that the Act had clauses which 'seemed' to give him authority to postpone mayoral elections.

“In this document, there are clauses that are very important, which I would like to share with the Zambians and justify where my authority seems to be coming from which others are saying you don't have that authority,” Tetamashimba said. “We go to clause 16; this is what clause 16 says: elections of mayor, deputy mayor, chairman and vice-chairman. 16(1) There shall be election of mayor, deputy mayor, chairman and vice-chairman (a) for every city or municipal council, a mayor and a deputy mayor;(b) for every township or district council, a chairman and vice chairman who shall be elected by the council from among persons who are councilors provided that a councilor who is a member of parliament or a chief shall not be eligible for the office of mayor, deputy mayor, chairman or vice-chairman of the council.”

He, however, said there had been controversy in understanding clause 16(2).

“Now, the one that has been quoted by many people including my brother Wynter Kabimba is 16 (2). It states and I quote: 'The mayor, deputy mayor, chairman or vice-chairman of a council shall be elected annually at the first ordinary meeting of council held after the 1st of September in that year',” Tetamashimba read. “I want to go further to 17 which states that 'the mayor, deputy mayor, chairman and vice chairman of a council shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, hold office until his successor is elected'. I want you to follow that.”

However, Tetamashimba said he based his argument to postpone the elections on clauses that dealt with the approval of the budget for the council.

“Thirty eight is talking about finances and it states: 'The financial year of a council shall be the period of twelve months ending on the 31st December in each year', while 39 (1) states that, 'a council shall cause to be prepared and shall adopt estimates of revenues and expenditure of the council and shall, at least sixty days before the commencement of a financial year, submit such annual estimates for the approval of the minister', me,” said Tetamashimba while touching his chest. “You know all the councils get grants from the government, sometimes it goes to K30 billion. They [funds] can only be given to the council when they have approved their budgets so that we can include them in our budget. I have less than 60 days before 31st December and as at now, I have not approved a budget from any council and the Minister of Finance has told me that 'can you please give me the submissions of the budget from the council'.”

He said that was when he decided to put the elections of the mayor on hold to pave way for the approval of the council budgets.

“I said we are late in making submissions not because the councils have failed to do their job, I cannot blame the council because we all know that our president [Levy Mwanawasa] got sick and died and we buried him on 3rd September and immediately after the burial, we went for elections,” Tetamashimba said. “When the President was sworn in, we had already chewed some days from the 60 days when I am supposed to have the budgets in my office. That is when I said we can either proceed with the elections of mayors or we don't hold the elections of mayor, we ask our councils to first give us their approved budget so that I can put it in the national budget.

“So what I did was to postpone, not cancel, so that they [councilors] can have the budget discussed during the period they should have the elections and after they have done the budget, it means I will have nothing to delay the election of mayor. So I issued the Statutory Instrument. This Statutory Instrument is number 120 of 2008.”

He said he signed the Statutory Instrument on December 15 and directed all councils to submit their approved budgets by December 24.

“I want the budget to be finished and when the budget is finished, nothing will hold the elections of the mayor,” Tetamashimba said.

He accused PF Nkana member of parliament Mwenya Musenge of perpetrating anarchy for holding mayoral elections in Kitwe without following the procedure and in the absence of the town clerk, who should be the returning officer.

“That is what we call anarchy,” Tetamashimba said. “Even in Mufulira, the same thing happened.”

Tetamashimba also said Sata was a sick man and needed to rest and not verbally attack young people like him.

And according to a letter written by PF chairman for local government, housing and environment protection committee chairman Wynter Kabimba, PF would tomorrow proceed to seek legal redress in the courts of law unless the Statutory Instrument was availed to them.