ConCourt pressed with time ambushes lawyers
A word of advise to young men quoting very beautiful young ladies, please be decisive and thrown in your manifesto or serious intentions before you are caught up by events and time.
You can throw in various gifts and visits but if you have not spelled out our case, one day, you would be shocked when she will tell you, sorry I am getting married tomorrow because you have been wasting my time.
This morning the UPND lawyers were shocked to hear that the Concourt is going to trial on Friday 2nd August, 2016. Asked about the various applications that they have been making, the Judge simply said, they will be looked at but whatever the case, trial starts 2nd August, 2016, at 08:00hrs.
The Judge reminded the Lawyers that, the people out there are getting tired of this process. She said that, people might think that the Concourt is just playing around and therefore, the case has to go out to the public so that they can hear.
Yesterday, the Concourt adjourned at a point where they were to argue the application made by the UPND to amend the main petition.
The application was argued today and the Respondents objected to the amendments because of the 7 days prescribed in the Constitution, that the petition and its arguments must be filed before 7 days elapses after the declaration on the President-elect.
They also argued that, the application has been overtaken by events, whereby, the respondents have already filed in their replies and ready for trial.
The Judge reserved the ruling to Thursday 1st September, 2016.
On same day (Thursday) the will be a Compliance Conference where the Concourt will check both parties to make sure that they are ready for trial on Friday.
The UPND who are full have burdened the Concourt with applications, came up with yet another application to bring in more witnesses.
This application will be heard on Thursday 1st September 2016.
What one should wonder in relation to this 11th hour application is the time factor since the respondents would have to respond while Friday, trial should start.
Talking about time, the Concourt dwelt on it today. According to the Judge, she excluded the the weekends in counting for the 14 days as prescribed in the Constitution. This means that the Concourt could sit up to Thursday 8th September, 2016.
From the calculation of the 14 days by the Judge, it allowed her to give 2 days for each side to argue the case in the Concourt.
However, there is a possibility that the 14 days calculation and allocation of days might be argued on Thursday, because some law schools do count the weekends if the days are more than 6.
The Respondents could also argue that, 2 days may not be enough for them since they are 4 (President-elect, Veep, ECZ and Govt represented by the Attorney General).
On the other hand tomorrow we have a ruling relating to the ECZ and the ballot papers.
If you are confused with this case, trust me you are not alone because besides all what Have updated above, there is also another suit by the UPND against the President-elect and the Speaker which is taking place this afternoon.
At the end of the day, one cannot fail to tell what this case is like and where it would go.
I am tired, make sense out of it.
By Chilufya Tayali