Zambia’s High Court on Wednesday ruled that three opposition lawmakers who accepted ministerial posts in President Levy Mwanawasa’s government should lose their parliamentary seats because their party has sacked them.
The Lusaka High Court ruled that the speaker of the National Assembly should declare vacant the three parliamentary seats held by Minister of Commerce Dipak Patel, Deputy Minister of Defence Patricia Nawa and Deputy Minister of Sports Geoffrey Samukonga.
Judge Philip Musonda said the three ministers ceased to be parliamentarians when they were expelled from their party, the opposition Forum for Democracy and Development.
”Therefore, the speaker should declare their seats as being vacant,” Musonda said.
The decision will effectively mean that the three parliamentarians will lose their ministerial posts because the Zambian Constitution requires ministers to be lawmakers.
Mwanawasa appointed the three opposition politicians to his Cabinet without consulting their party, which later expelled them for ”crossing the floor and gross indiscipline”.
However, the three ministers had obtained a court order to refrain the speaker from declaring their parliamentary seats vacant because they were not given a fair hearing in their party. — Sapa-AFP