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President Hakainde Hichilema has been sued in the Constitutional Court over the ongoing constitutional amendment process, with the petitioners alleging that he has breached the Constitution.
Patriotic Front (PF) Mporokoso Member of Parliament, Brian Mundubile, and Tonse National Youth Secretary, Celestine Mukandila, have jointly filed a petition seeking several declarations, among them that President Hichilema violated his oath of office by initiating constitutional amendments without broad-based consultation with citizens.
The Attorney-General has also been cited as a respondent in the matter.
Read more: Praise, knocks for Hichilema as President puts constitution amendment process on hold
The petitioners argued that the decision to undertake a constitutional amendment without wide and inclusive consultation contravenes Articles 8(c) and (e), 9, 90, 91(3)(a), and 92(1) of the Constitution.
They asserted that this amounted to a breach of the President’s constitutional duty to protect and uphold the supreme law of the land, rendering him unfit for nomination as a presidential candidate.
According to the petition, the matter arises from events of March 8, 2025, when President Hichilema announced during International Women’s Day commemorations that the government had initiated a constitutional reform process.
Subsequently, on March 25, 2025, Minister Kasune, on behalf of the Attorney General, informed Parliament that technical work on the reforms had been completed and that a draft amendment bill was ready to be tabled.
“Your petitioners shall aver that the illegal constitutional amendment process which was subject of proceedings under petition no. 9 of 2025 was in fact initiated by Hichilema in a purported exercise of his constitutional mandate,” the petition reads.
The petitioners noted that the proposed Bill No. 7 of 2025 was published in the Government Gazette on May 23, 2025, despite the absence of broad public participation.
They argued that the Constitutional Court had already declared the entire process unconstitutional due to unilateral executive action and lack of public involvement, rendering Bill No. 7 null and void.
Mundubile and Mukandila now accuse the President and the Attorney-General of acting in defiance of that judgment by maintaining that the same Bill will be reintroduced in the National Assembly.
The two petitioners, therefore, seek a declaration that President Hichilema’s actions constitute a breach of his oath of office and that, as a result, he is disqualified from contesting any future election as Republican President.
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