Those paid to humiliate us failed – M’membe
By Charles Musonda
THOSE who were paid to humiliate us in court over our academic qualifications have failed, Socialist Party (SP) presidential candidate Dr Fred M’membe has said.
Dr M’membe also says the Constitutional Court’s judgment, which on Wednesday afternoon dismissed the petition filed by Zambia Civil Liberties Union executive director Isaac Mwanza and the consortium of civil society organisations on good governance and constitutionalism against his running mate Dolika Banda, was well reasoned.
The petitioners were seeking Banda’s disqualification and annulment of Dr M’membe’s candidature in the August 13 general elections on grounds that she does not have a grade 12 certificate or its acceptable equivalent according to the Zambian standards.
“They have failed to carry out their malice. There was an attempt to humiliate us. Everybody knows that we are highly educated people. We are not boasting. We don’t boast but we are highly educated people, probably some of the most educated politicians in the world. In terms of politicians there is no politician in Africa who matches my qualifications,” he said.
A full bench of the Constitutional Court dismissed the petition for lack of the petitioners’ own evidence as they relied on evidence from the Attorney General who was cited as the fourth respondent.
Such evidence could not be useful because the burden of proof squarely lay on them.
“No one in the world you know of… I’m not saying I’m the most educated in the world, no. Among the politicians there’re very few, if any. To try to humiliate us in this way what they were after was to try to humiliate a person who has served this country with very high levels of integrity with sufficient honour. My running mate Dolika is a highly experienced professional,” Dr M’membe said.
He said those who paid to take Banda and him to court were scared of the first and second respondents’ quality leadership for Zambia.
Zambians had elected a bunch of incompetent criminals and crooks at the expense of decent people they were trying to bring down.
He said it would be difficult for Zambia to move forward without quality leadership in place.
He said the Constitutional Court had tried to deliver a well-reasoned and one of the best judgments.
The seven judges on the bench had done their work and it was good to give credit where it was due.
He thanked the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ), which was cited as the third respondent in the petition, for conducting itself with sufficient honour and integrity; and high levels of professionalism in the petition. “We pray that they continue to work in that manner in all the remaining aspects of this election. With such integrity, with such honour our country will make progress.”
