Limitation of presidential terms in Zambia: annotating the judicial interpretation

On 7 December 2018, the Constitutional Court of Zambia delivered a judgment which has sparked controversy in the political arena. The judgement concerns the question of whether Zambia’s incumbent President, Edgar Lungu, is eligible for re-election as President in the general elections slated for 2021. The aim of this article is twofold: (1) to explore the rationale for the limitation of presidential terms in Zambia and (2) to annotate the Court’s judgment in light of that rationale. To achieve this aim, the analysis draws on various sources of literature and legal authorities bearing upon the subject. The analysis reveals that the limitation of presidential terms enjoys strong support among Zambians, and that this is justified by the need to facilitate alternation in the office of President to avert the emergency of autocracy which is associated with excessive concentration of power in the executive. As concerns the judgement at issue, the analysis finds that the Court implicitly declared Lungu eligible to contest the 2021 presidential election thereby allowing him a possibility to be re-elected to the office of President for a third term which, it is argued, undermines the law as understood in its context.