News Diggers OPINION: ECZ is trying to rig by-elections for UPND in Kwacha, Kabushi

By Diggers Editor
CONSTITUTIONAL lawyer John Sangwa State Counsel says the UPND is practicing gutter politics by using the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) to block opposition members from taking part in elections.

He also observes that the UPND was on a path to destroy Zambia’s democracy in a manner that was worse than what former president Edgar Lungu did.

John SANGWA SC: “You can’t have the President going to campaign in an election that he knows is illegal. This is a new low for this country, ok, because we knew Lungu and PF were bad but they were not this bad to the point where they want to use the institutions of government to bar opposition members from participating in an election. You cannot deny the electorate the right to choose the candidate of their choice through some bogus interpretation of the constitution. That’s a new low. Now, we didn’t make sacrifices, taking risks and chances last year to remove PF only for the UPND to come and continue the same nonsense that we removed PF for. We kicked out PF because we deserve better, we said we needed better, we deserved better.”

We totally agree with the learned State Counsel. What Mr Sangwa is talking about is an issue that we raised when the court ruled against Mr Joe Malanji on the basis of his grade 12 certificate. Even though Mr Malanji’s election was nullified, to date it is not clear whether he contested the 2021 elections with or without a valid certificate. All we know is that his election was challenged based on qualifications and that he lost the case. But neither the court nor ECZ declared his grade 12 certificate invalid, very surprising!…