Mr Banda beat Mr Sata, United Party for National Development (UPND) president Hakainde Hichilema and their Heritage Party counterpart Godfrey Miyanda in last week’s election.
The President told journalists in Lusaka yesterday that Mr Sata was entitled to seek legal redress if he was aggrieved by the election results.
He is entitled to petition. Our laws do provide for that. If you are not happy with the election, you can go and petition, Mr Banda said.
He said this in his response to questions from journalists shortly after taking a photo shoot for his official portrait at the Zambia News and Information Services studios.
And Mr Banda said he did not particularly know about former President Frederick Chiluba having gone to Luapula Province to campaign for him because there were many Zambians who spread his campaign messages countrywide.
I don’t know particularly about Dr Chiluba because I was not there. I just read in the newspaper that he went round to campaign for me, he said.
Mr Banda thanked all the people who dedicated their time and efforts to helping him campaign for the presidential election in which he emerged victorious
He also said he would consider constituting his new Cabinet after returning from South Africa where he would attend an emergency Southern African Development Community (SADC) Summit on Zimbabwe’s power sharing deal this weekend.
President Mugabe and Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai are deadlocked over Cabinet positions in a power sharing Government which the two rivals agreed to form on September 15 this year.
Mr Banda said he would need time to think about the issue of forming Cabinet, especially after returning from South Africa.
He said he had a Cabinet meeting yesterday morning during which he asked ministers to go back to work.
As you know, we have been out of office for so long. There are many things we need to attend to. So, there is still time ahead of that, Mr Banda said.
Meanwhile, Mr Banda has congratulated United States of America Democratic candidate Barrack Obama on his election as the 44th President of that country.
I was very much interested to listen to his inaugural speech. I am glad that I made mine before his; otherwise, he would have thought I copied from him, he said jokingly.
Mr Banda said the presidential election in the US was a lovely event. – Zambia Daily Mail