Decision on Chiluba impeachment debate delayed

Zambia’s parliament on Wednesday postponed a debate on an impeachment motion against President Frederick Chiluba by dissident ruling party MPs, news reports said. National Assembly Speaker Amusaa Mwanamwambwa was quoted as saying that the delay was to allow time for a court ruling to end a dispute over the expulsion of 21 legislators from the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) party. “The Speaker is unable to make his position known because of two subsisting cases relating to the petitioners,” Mwanamwambwa said in a letter to Ackson Sejani and Mike Mulongoti, the MPs who on 3 May brought the motion that is supported by more than one-third of Zambia’s 158-member parliament. The Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) was quoted as saying hat Mwanamwambwa had erred by declining to call parliament, adding that the law required him to convene the national assembly within 21 days of receiving the motion. The MMD expelled the MPs in April after they opposed a bid by Chiluba to extend his rule beyond the legal limit of 10 years. The MPs said the expulsions contravened a court injunction that barred the party from taking any disciplinary action against them and are contesting the matter in the high court.