presidential candidates. We cannot stress enough that Parliament
must take its role, as outlined in sections 6 and 21 of the
Constitution of Zambia Act No. 1 of 2016 seriously by quickly
bringing the laws in conformity with, or give effect to, the
Constitution. This is more so on issues to deal with governance and
accountability. This is what we implored in the case of Dipak Patel
v The Minister of Finance and The Attorney General7.
[65] We now proceed to consider the second issue. This is whether
this Court should proceed to order that the declared assets and
liabilities for President Hakainde Hichilema be published in the
absence of the same being prescribed as required by Article 52 (3)
of the Constitution. It was the Petitioner's contention that this
Court should order the 1st Respondent to release the declared
assets and liabilities for President Hakainde Hichilema so as to
foster transparency and accountability.
[66] To begin with, we wish to reiterate that we do not condone
the targeting of one candidate in the manner that the Petitioner
has done in this matter. Constitutional issues are of general
application and in this matter, it should have targeted all the 16
presidential candidates who took part in the 2021 general elections,
who include the Petitioner, and to whom Article 52 (3) of the
Constitution applied. We also implore parties commencing pubic
interest litigation to do so in a timely manner to ensure access to
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