Zambia’s Constitutional Court Dismisses Election Challenge
Local Editor
Zambia's Constitutional Court dismissed a petition by opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema to nullify the Aug. 11 elections won by President Edgar Lungu, without the hearing having started.
Three of five judges ruled that a 14-day deadline for hearing the challenge that was filed Aug. 19 lapsed by midnight on Sept. 2, contradicting the court's decision on that day to adjourn proceedings until Monday, when the trial would begin.
"Where the time for hearing a petition is limited, the court is bound," Judge Anne Mwewa-Sitali said in Lusaka, the capital, reading the ruling.
"Our position therefore is the petition stands dismissed for want of prosecution as at midnight" on Sept. 2.
Lungu was declared the winner of the Aug. 11 presidential election with 50.4 percent of the vote against Hichilema's 47.6 percent, enough to avoid a run-off.
The opposition leader said the ruling Patriotic Front had colluded with the Electoral Commission of Zambia to manipulate the poll, a claim they both denied.
Lungu must preside over an economy that's growing at its slowest pace since 1998 amid a slump in the price of copper that accounts for more than 70 percent of the country's export earnings.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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