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Lawyer and human rights advocate, Linda Kasonde, Brebner Changala and the LCK Freedom Foundation have petitioned the Constitutional Court seeking to nullify the August 13 presidential election and declare President Hakainde Hichilema’s election invalid.
The three petitioners have cited the Electoral Commission of Zambia, the Attorney-General and President Hichilema as respondents in the matter filed Monday.
They contend that the electoral environment before, during and after the poll violated Article 45 of the Constitution by failing to guarantee the free exercise of political rights and an election that was free and fair, and free from violence, intimidation and corruption.
“The electoral environment in which the Election was conducted, before, during and after the poll, contravened Article 45 of the Constitution,” Kasonde, Changala and LCK Freedom Foundation said in the petition.
The petitioners are challenging the ECZ’s declaration of Hichilema as President, arguing that the official results are contradicted by independent verification undertaken by the Christian Churches Monitoring Group.
They state that CCMG’s Process and Results Verification for Transparency, based on results from 1,491 of 1,500 sampled polling stations, estimated Hichilema’s share at 56 percent, compared with the ECZ’s declared 60.5 percent.
The PRVT estimated Brian Mundubile’s share at 42.3 percent, against the ECZ’s 37.9 percent, while national voter turnout was estimated at 53.5 percent, compared with the ECZ’s 57.23 percent.
“The divergence was concentrated in 30 constituencies where official turnout exceeded the plausible PRVT range by more than 10 percentage points and where the movement in recorded votes favoured the United Party for National Development,” the petition states.
The petitioners also allege direct evidence of alteration of votes between polling stations and constituency tally centres.
They said that in the four constituencies for which tally-centre records were made available to CCMG observers, discrepancies were found at 11 of 24 sampled polling stations.
“In 10 of those stations, the UPND vote recorded at the tally centre was higher than the figure announced at the polling station, by an average of 178 votes and by as much as 401 votes at one station,” according to the petition.
The petitioners have separately condemned the ECZ’s decision to suspend tallying and announcement of results on August 14, alleging that the decision was unlawful and created a real risk that the results subsequently announced could have been manipulated.
They further accused the ECZ of failing to publish polling-station-level results in a bulk, analysable format, withholding Records of Proceedings at Totaling of Votes and GEN20 forms, failing to ensure equal access to campaign space and security, and declaring preliminary presidential results shortly before 03:00 hours on August 18.
The principal constitutional ground, the petitioners argue, is that the election violated Article 45 and compromised the constitutional guarantee of the secrecy of the ballot under Article 46.
They allege that national registration numbers were recorded on or against ballot papers at polling stations observed by the SADC Electoral Observation Mission and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region mission.
The petition also cites politically motivated violence, including the fatal shooting of former Lunte MP and Cabinet minister Mutotwe Kafwaya, as part of the circumstances surrounding the tallying and announcement of results.
“Taken individually or cumulatively, the irregularities mean that the declared results cannot be said to reflect the free and fair expression of the sovereign will of the Zambian people,” Kasonde, Changala and LCK Freedom Foundation said.
The petitioners are asking the Constitutional Court to declare the August 13 presidential election unconstitutional and Hichilema’s election invalid, to set aside and nullify the declared presidential result and to order a fresh presidential election.
Alternatively, they want the court to order a full recount and re-tabulation in the 30 constituencies identified by CCMG, together with Kalomo Central, Lufwanyama East and Lufwanyama West, followed by consequential re-tabulation of the national result.
They are also seeking orders compelling the ECZ to publish all Records of Proceedings at the Totaling of Votes and images of GEN20 forms for all polling stations, as well as full records concerning the August 14 suspension of tallying and announcement of results.
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