How does one "move on"?
We have just had an election in which the "losing party" not only disputed the results, but actually lodged election petitions in enough parliamentary seats to make it the winning party, had those petitions succeeded at the courts of law. The election petitions were barred from being heard on some technicality. The nation was denied the right to hear the merits if any, of the complaints lodged by the losing party. The supporters of the party which has thus declared itself to be the winner demand that "we all forget about it and move on".
How do we move on? At the recent 2019 World Economic Forum in Davos the president of the now "ruling" party, who is the current "President" assured prospective international investors that the controversy surrounding our elections is nothing to be alarmed about. He went so far as to assure his listeners that should the courts rule that the elections be "re-run", he would comply. Nice Words, great stuff! The illusion created by the President at Davos has now been shattered by the Chief Justice (CJ); a man he controversially appointed above more senior and experienced judges, when he was made President of the country on 1st April 2018.
The Chief Justice has now declared that elections are won "not at the courts but at the ballot box". This declaration is like a kick in the gut of democratic expectations, following as it does on the heels of the Court of Appeal (CoA) declaring itself without jurisdiction over the High Court's decision NOT to hear the petitions. The CoA is the highest court in the land.
So how does one move on? Move on to where? How does one change the government of a country where the President, after serving the maximum two five-year terms, handpicks a successor from his party to be president for one and half years, BEFORE running for the next elections as an incumbent; and however rigged such elections may be perceived to be, the Courts of law throw the resulting petitions out on technicalities, and the Highest Court in the land declares itself without jurisdiction over such decisions? These must be the kind of questions that Nelson Mandela, a lawyer, together with his fellow Rivonia trialists must have been asking themselves when the Apartheid state demanded that they "forget about the right to have a say in the choice of a government, and move on".
How do we move on? At the recent 2019 World Economic Forum in Davos the president of the now "ruling" party, who is the current "President" assured prospective international investors that the controversy surrounding our elections is nothing to be alarmed about. He went so far as to assure his listeners that should the courts rule that the elections be "re-run", he would comply. Nice Words, great stuff! The illusion created by the President at Davos has now been shattered by the Chief Justice (CJ); a man he controversially appointed above more senior and experienced judges, when he was made President of the country on 1st April 2018.
The Chief Justice has now declared that elections are won "not at the courts but at the ballot box". This declaration is like a kick in the gut of democratic expectations, following as it does on the heels of the Court of Appeal (CoA) declaring itself without jurisdiction over the High Court's decision NOT to hear the petitions. The CoA is the highest court in the land.
So how does one move on? Move on to where? How does one change the government of a country where the President, after serving the maximum two five-year terms, handpicks a successor from his party to be president for one and half years, BEFORE running for the next elections as an incumbent; and however rigged such elections may be perceived to be, the Courts of law throw the resulting petitions out on technicalities, and the Highest Court in the land declares itself without jurisdiction over such decisions? These must be the kind of questions that Nelson Mandela, a lawyer, together with his fellow Rivonia trialists must have been asking themselves when the Apartheid state demanded that they "forget about the right to have a say in the choice of a government, and move on".
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