Charlotte Scott confident of her petition
Mrs Scott.
Opposition UPND Lusaka Central Constituency Parliamentary candidate in the 2016 elections has expressed confidence as the Constitutional Court is set to rule on her election petition.
In a statement below, Mrs Scott who had Finance Minister Margarete Mwanakatwe’s election nullified by the High Court says she was looking forward to the verdict.
I stood as a candidate for UPND in Lusaka Central constituency in the Parliamentary elections of August 2016. Following the election, I lodged a petition to the High Court of Zambia, presenting evidence on six grounds for the nullification of the election results.
On 24th November 2016, the High Court ruled in my favour. The judgement upheld five of my complaints, notably that my evidence had satisfied the court regarding:
1. The Zambia police preventing me from campaigning
2. I had been subject to attacks that had prevented me from campaigning
3. My opponent had made discriminatory remarks against me during the course of her campaign
4. My opponent had engaged in acts of bribery and corrupt practices to induce voters to support her
5. My opponent had used Government resources in the course of her campaign.
Note that any one of these complaints would have been enough to get the election nullified. Judge Siavwapa quoted an earlier case (Michael Mabenga vs Sikota Wina and others) to the effect that “satisfactory proof of any one corrupt or illegal or misconduct in an election petition is sufficient to nullify an election.” I am not a scholar of election petitions, but to win on five counts is more than any other petition that I can recall.
The Judge concluded that my opponent’s campaign was “tainted” and “contrary to the principles of holding a free and fair election”, and nullified Mrs Mwanakatwe’s election on 24th November 2016.
My opponent’s petition against the High Court judgement was announced immediately. To win, the petition will have to succeed in having all five of my successful complaints reversed.
We have waited just short of two years for this appeal process to be completed. The outcome of this appeal will be delivered by the Constitutional Court on Wednesday 31st October, 2019.
Charlotte Scott