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{
    "id": 732332,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/732332/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 106,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Speaker",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Hon. Members, in examining the question of whether the High Court has powers to stop the National Assembly from considering the Petition, there are two related issues that need to be examined. These are: What is the place of the doctrine of separation of powers and what is the right of a Petitioner as espoused in the Constitution? Permit me to examine each of the questions as follows: Firstly, on the issue of what is the place of the doctrine of separation of powers, as you are aware, the doctrine requires that the three principal institutions of the State, namely, the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary, should be divided in persons and functions in order to safeguard liberties and guard against the excesses of the other. Clarifying on the democratic principles underpinning this doctrine, Montesquieu in 1748 states as follows: ―When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty... there is no liberty if the powers of judging is not separated from the legislative and executive arms...there would be an end to everything, if the same man or the same body... were to exercise those three powers.‖"
}