The opposition PF has asked the High Court to dismiss with costs the preliminary issues raised by the Attorney General, the MMD and the Electoral Commission of Zambia in a case relating to President Rupiah Banda’s parentage issue. According to submissions in opposition to the defendants’ submissions, Wynter Kabimba who sued in his capacity as PF secretary general, asked the court to dismiss the preliminary issues on grounds that they are misconceived.
In this case, Kabimba sued the Attorney General, MMD national secretary Major Richard Kachingwe and the Electoral Commission of Zambia claiming that the ruling party cannot by law sponsor President Rupiah Banda because his parents are not Zambian citizens.
Kabimba is claiming a declaratory judgment or order that the parents of President Banda are not citizens of Zambia by birth and that the MMD cannot by law sponsor him as a presidential candidate in the 2011 presidential and general elections to be held on September 20, this year. He also wants an interim order of injunction to restrain the MMD from sponsoring President Banda as its presidential candidate.
Kabimba is further seeking a declaratory judgment or order against the ECZ contending that the Commission cannot and should not by law prescribe its mandate in accepting nomination papers from President Banda as presidential candidate of the MMD because his parents are or were not Zambian citizens by birth.
But the Attorney General, for and on behalf of the MMD and the ECZ, raised issues wondering whether or not the court has jurisdiction to hear the action commenced.