Zambians angry over president supporters’ petition to delay elections

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President Edgar Chagwa Lungu during the official opening of the African AU Committee of Ten Heads of State Summit on the UN Reforms of the Security Council at David Livingstone Safari Lodge in Livingstone, Zambia on Friday, May 9,2015 -PICTURE BY EDDIE MWANALEZA
President Edgar Chagwa Lungu

A petition filed on Tuesday by citizens to a high court in Zambia, seeking to delay the country’s 2016 elections to 2020 and give President Edgar Lungu a full five- year term has sparked online backlash.

 

Lungu was elected in the January presidential election necessitated by the death of former president Michael Sata last year. He is serving out his predecessor’s term which expires next year.

 

In the petition, the president’s supporters require the court to postpone next year’s elections, arguing that Lungu deserves a full five-year term of office as “he was elected in a free and fair election.”

 

However, many Zambians have taken to social media to express their anger over the petition, saying that a precedent was already set in 2008 when former president Rupiah Banda served a period of three years following the death of ex-president Levy Mwanawasa.

 

“He (Banda) did not call for a full five-year term and nothing has changed since then,” netizen Maybin Mwape, said on Facebook, adding that the bid “will not go anywhere.” Enditem

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