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PF factions lock horns at Constitutional Court over right to party membership

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PF faction Secretary-General, Morgan Ng’ona, has submitted to the Constitutional Court that in accordance with the party constitution, a Member of Parliament who refuses to remit monthly contribution amounts to voluntarily resignation.

Ng’ona stated that the monthly contributions were mandatory, and that the decision by Bangweulu Member of Parliament, Anthony Kasandwe, and his Milanzi counterpart, Melesiana Phiri, not to remit the said contribution amounted to resignation.

Read more:Two Patriotic Front members of parliament drag Sampa to court over alleged expulsion from party

This is according to an affidavit in opposition to the petition filed by Kasandwe and Phiri, challenging their purported expulsion from the party.

The petitioners referred to Sampa as a masquerader of a party president who had neither authority nor his Secretary-General, Ng’ona, to expel them from the party.

Ng’ona was alleged to have copied the letters of their expulsion to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Nelly Mutti.

The petitioners, therefore, had turned to the Constitutional Court to declare their purported resignation from the party by Ng’ona as illegal, and an order that the Speaker cannot act on without the written notification of resignation by them.

Kasandwe and Phiri further want the court to declare their purported expulsion from the PF party in line with Article 72 (2) (e) of the constitution null and void for failure to accord them a right to be heard.

However, Ng’ona has defended the expulsion of the Petitioners, claiming that they violated the party constitution.

“That the breach was caused by the petitioner’s refusal to remit mandatory monthly contributions.That the refusal to remit monthly contribution amounts to voluntarily resignation as provided by the party constitution,” he contended.

Ng’ona had raised Preliminary Issues questioning the Constitutional Court’s jurisdiction to hear a matter concerning breaches of the party constitution.

He argued that the matter was wrongly brought before the Constitutional Court as it only has jurisdiction to hear matters bordering on breaches of the Republican constitution.

“It is clear that a matter of internal political party regulations pertaining to a breach of a political party constitution does not fall within the ambit of matters to be heard by this court. Owing to the following, we submit that this case equally falls within the purview of cases that should be dismissed on a point of law as it is one covered by the jurisdiction of this court,” he submitted.

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