Maravi

Hansungule echoes call for speedy disposal of poll cases

Hansungule echoes call for speedy disposal of poll cases
By Ernest Chanda
Thu 07 July 2011, 04:00 CAT

PROFESSOR Michelo Hansugule says the law should be reformed to avoid protracted delays when dealing with election petitions. Commenting on chief justice Ernest Sakala’s appeal to judges for expeditious disposal of electoral cases before and after this year’s elections, the Pretoria University law lecturer said the laws should have provided for specific timeframes within which such cases should be concluded.

“Take, for instance, presidential petitions threaten to run at the same time as the term of the president whose election is being contested, which makes a mockery of the benefits from petitioning. Both the presidential petitions against late presidents Chiluba and Mwanawasa went on and on without end,” Prof Hansungule said.

“Meanwhile, the two contested presidents were sworn-in and moved their families to State House, started signing laws, replacing military and security chiefs and performing all the functions of an uncontested incumbent.

I am not here suggesting what is impossible that the Supreme Court could nullify the sitting president’s ‘victory’. It can’t be.”

He said under the current arrangement it was difficult for the courts to decide against the incumbent president.

Prof Hansungule said instead courts had found it easier to decide on petitions involving members of parliament and councilors.

“The impossible, however, is deciding against the incumbent president who in any case is already in office. I argue that whatever the evidence, the Supreme Court can never declare a presidential election invalid. But it is a question of principle that the law should try and promote patent fairness on this issue,” he said.

Prof Hansungule said the nation should learn from Uganda which provides for a time to settle electoral disputes before swearing in the presidential winner.

“According to the Constitution of Uganda, there is a ‘cooling off period’ after elections to allow for any petition against the ‘winning president’ and a timeframe fixed to resolve the dispute before the president is sworn in,” Prof Hansungule said.

And Prof Hansungule says the Supreme Court is equally guilty of delaying election petitions.

“Therefore, the issue is not so much the High Court judges delaying petitions or not dealing with them fairly according to law. It is as much the Supreme Court which the Chief Justice was clearly not addressing to heed the Chief Justice’s advice,” said Prof Hansungule.

“For instance, it is utterly wrong for the Constitution to make the Chief Justice electoral officer for the purposes of presidential elections and then expect him to sit over petitions concerning the election of the president he had just certified.

How does the angry petitioner who feels cheated at the conduct of the electoral officer who also happens to be Chief justice who must sit together with his peers to resolve his anger come to reconcile with this? There are many troubling things that the Chief Justice omitted to say in his otherwise timely advice to the country’s judges.”

Opening a one-day conference for judges organised by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) in Siavonga on Tuesday, justice Sakala urged judges countrywide to expeditiously deal with cases that would arise in their courts during and after this year’s elections.

He said the forthcoming presidential, parliamentary and local government elections would come with massive challenges which could subsequently lead to losing candidates filing election petitions to settle differences.

Labels: 2011 ELECTIONS, ECZ, MICHELO HANSUNGULE

posted by MrK @ 4:43 PM