President-elect Edgar Lungu will have to step aside and allow the speaker of the national assembly to take over in the event that the opposition petition his election, Attorney General Likando Kalaluka has said.
Kalaluka said this early last week but his interpretation is now expected to be applied after the ECZ declared Lungu as the President-elect and the opposition UPND has indicated that they will petition the result in the constitutional court.
Kalaluka said the Constitution does not allow incumbent President Edgar Lungu to continue in office if his election is petitioned in court.
He however, clarified that the Head of State is mandated to continue in office if there is no clear winner in the first round of voting.
But the PF leadership and some supporters have condemned the statement issued by the President’s top legal advisor, saying he was inviting the opposition UPND to petition the ruling party’s possible election victory.
Kalaluka held a press briefing on, where he explained the provisions of the amended Constitution in an event of a second ballot or an election petition against a sitting Head of State.
When he was asked who would be the ‘caretaker President’ in an event of a rerun, Kalaluka explained that the Constitution only provided for the Speaker taking over if an election was petitioned.
“I think the Constitution provides that the Speaker will take over if there is a challenge in terms of the petition; if someone is challenging the election results. If it is only a re-run, the President will continue in office. The only instance when the President will not be in office according to the Constitution is where there is a challenge in the Constitutional Court. That’s what the Constitution says,” Kalaluka explained.
He also said the government had no choice but to comply with the Constitutional Court’s order for ministers to vacate office.
“I think that as the President mentioned, the government will have to obey the court order, I don’t think there’s any other way of going round it. The court has ruled, of course maybe some people may not be happy with that but when the court makes a decision, we have to abide,” Kalaluka said.
He said the winner would be determined by the majority votes.
“We have reached the end of the campaign period, what is remaining is for people to vote tomorrow [yesterday] and after that, the winner will be determined by the number of votes which will be counted in favor of whichever candidate,” said Kalaluka.
But in a Facebook posting, Zambia’s High Commissioner to South Africa Emmanuel Mwamba said Kalaluka was wrong.
“When Attorney General is wrong… I was surprised to learn of the interpretation made by the Attorney General at his press conference on Wednesday. He made pronouncements and scenarios about power shift, power transfer and power permutation during this period. My concern was his statement that the Republican President hands over power to the Speaker in the event of an election petition,” Mwamba stated.
“Contrary, the Constitution states that the Speaker comes in the picture only when the election of the President Elect has been nullified (Article 103 (3). But the AG even went to the extent to state that the Speaker takes over Executive Functions in the event of a petition.”
The PF supporters accused the Attorney General of inviting the opposition to petition a possible PF victory.
Earlier this year, Kalaluka made a statement on ZNBC, explaining that the Constitution did not allow ministers to stay in office after dissolution of Parliament.
But President Lungu later made a contradictory statement, denouncing the legal guidance, adding that people who wanted his ministers to vacate office were ignorant.
But on Monday last week, the Constitutional Court reversed President Lungu’s decision and ordered the ministers to pay back the salaries and allowances drawn since May 12 when Parliament was dissolved.
PF critics say Kalaluka had decided to hold a press conference to state his position on the matter so that he cleared his name in an event that President Lungu refuses to step aside.