By ADRIAN MWANZA
THE move by Speaker of the National Assembly Nelly Mutti to expel nine PF MP’s whose seats were nullified by the high court is amiss and has some political hand in it, Professor Nkandu Luo has said.
Prof Luo said though she was not a lawyer, it was evident that the Speaker was working under pressure from some political influence.
Prof Luo was President Edgar Lungu’s running mate in the August 12 tripartite elections.
She recalled that in 2016 Lusaka High Court Judge, Edward Musona, overturned her election victory citing electoral irregularities and rampant acts of violence as reason for nullification of the Munali seat.
She however said during her tenure as Munali MP she was allowed to continue executing her duties whilst the matter was still in court.
Prof Luo said she was not the only one in that predicament as there were others who appealed and continued to serve their constituencies.
Prof Luo said that unlike the High Court which had a time frame attached to disposing off cases, the Constitutional Court was different.
“It’s going to be tricky because the ConCourt does not have a stipulated time to deal with cases and some cases can go even for a year,” she said.
She said the Speaker’s move would disadvntage people from the eight constituencies because they would not have MPs to represent them.
Prof Luo said the PF needed to fight and ensure that this move by the Speaker was rescinded because it was setting a very bad precedent.
“The Speaker is not in order to expel the nine and the prudent thing to do is to wait for the courts to finalise before taking such punitive action against MPs,” she said.
Speaker amiss on petitions – Luo
