Constitutional Lawyer Mehluli Batakathi says social media claims suggesting that members of parliament who have chosen to stand as independents are not eligible to contest in the August general elections are misleading.
A growing debate has emerged on social media over whether members of parliament who filed in nominations to contest as independents in the August elections are eligible to stand with several online posts claiming that lawmakers who recently resigned from political parties are automatically barred from contesting.
But Mr. Batakathi says article 51 of the Zambian constitution is clear that an independent candidate should not belong to a political party and must not have been a member of a political party for at least two months before the date of the election.
He told Phoenix News that with the general election scheduled for August 13th, MPs who opted to participate in the elections as independent candidates still qualify to contest because the constitutional requirement on the timeframe can still be met.
Mr. Batakathi has since urged members of the public to carefully read and understand the constitution instead of relying on misleading social media commentary.
-PHOENIX NEWS