By 
Bangweulu Member of Parliament, Anthony Kasandwe, and his Milanzi counterpart, Melesiana Phiri, have petitioned the Constitutional Court to declare illegal their purported expulsion from the Patriotic Front party by Miles Sampa and his supporters.
The petitioners referred to Sampa as a masquerader of a party president who had neither authority nor his Secretary-General, Morgan Ng’ona, to expel them from the party.
In a petition filed at the Constitutional Court on Thursday, Kasandwe and Phiri submitted that after the 2021 general elections, the PF lawmakers willingly agreed that K5000 be deducted from each person and that the Clerk of the National Assembly was written over the said decision.
Kasandwe said the 12 lawmakers from Luapula Province came together and agreed to create an emergency fund account held at ZANACO Mansa, that would help the province when faced with eventualities such as a drought.
He claimed, however, that immediately Sampa illegally ushered himself as party president in October last year, he froze all party accounts including the emergency fund.
The petitioners stated that the 12 lawmakers together with 40 others then decided to write to the Clerk of the National Assembly to stop deductions from their salaries out of their monthly contribution to the party .
The duo stated that they were, however, shocked on March 11, 2024 to learn of a letter dated March 3, 2024, written by Ng’ona accepting their resignations when they had infact not rendered resignation and had only notified the Clerk of the National Assembly to stop deductions.
“To the second respondent ( Ng’ona),the non contribution to the party was taken to mean that your petitioners had voluntarily resigned from the party in line with the constitution of Zambia the PF,” they stated.
Ng’ona was alleged to have copied the letters in question to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Nelly Mutti.
The petitioners, therefore, have 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.
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