10/12/2024
Edgar Chagwa Lungu responds to the con court ruling via his Facebook account
MY RESPONSE TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT JUDGEMENT TODAY
Ladies and gentlemen of our beloved nation, esteemed members of the press, fellow patriots, and all who hold dear the principles of justice and constitutional democracy:
We find ourselves at a critical juncture in our nation’s history, a moment marked by deep reflection and, I dare say, a profound sense of our common identity and destiny. The verdict rendered today was expected. For months, the hands of political manipulation have, with undeniable force, steered us toward a conclusion foreseen not by the merits of reasoned argument or constitutional fidelity but by the weight of orchestrated design and political machinations. We kept on monitoring this!
To understand the gravity of this moment, we must revisit the sequence of events that brought us here. It began with a petition that sought to exclude me from the political arena—not through the natural verdict of the people on the ballot paper, but by the calculated intervention of political forces sponsored by political players. It unfolded with the reshaping of our Constitutional Court, the displacement of arbiters of justice, and the narrowing of judicial voices to fit a predetermined script.
Yes, specific judges were expelled in order to retain specific judges specifically for today’s judgment! We saw decisions cloaked in procedural justifications concocted by that same unmistakable hand of expediency. Judges were removed, some silenced, others promoted, and the very architecture of our judiciary reshaped to align with partisan imperatives. Of course, we all witnessed calculated judicial reshuffles by politicians for their plane to land here today.
And so, you have heard for yourselves, the verdict has been issued, declaring that my eligibility to stand in the 2026 elections is nullified by the weight of the court's decision. I accept this verdict. I accept it not with r