Former Nalikwanda member of parliament Simasiku Kalumiana today told the Lusaka high court that he was surprised when he heard that he had lost his seat in the 2006 tripartite elections despite having commanded a lot of support in the area.
This was in a case in which Kalumiana has petitioned the election of Professor
Godfrey Lungwangwa as member of parliament for Nalikwanda constituency following the
September 28, 2006 general elections.
Kalumiana claimed that he had more support in the area than his five opponents and
hence he was surprised that he had lost when results were announced.
“I was surprised that I had lost the elections despite my campaigners and myself
seeing that I had an upper hand over the other candidates,” he said.
He alleged that the winner of the parliamentary elections, Professor Lungwangwa
defamed him which he said affected his performance in the polls.
Kalumiana wondered why there was a difference of 1,200 between him and his United
Liberal Party (ULP) president in the same constituency.
“During verification, I also discovered that some result announcement forms did not
carry the signature of the presiding officer,” he said.
He noted that in Silili, documents that were supposed to be in sealed envelopes and
boxes were not sealed.
“I reported this matter to the deputy commanding officer a Mr. Chongo who instructed
the officer in charge at Mongu police station a Mr. Mooto to go to the council
chamber where the verification was taking place, They took note of what was
happening, went back and never came back to me,” said Kalumiana.
He added that another incident was earlier reported about lack of security but
police did not act.
Kalumiana said some ballot books in Nalweyi were missing while forms were completed
on 26 September 2006 before the election date.
“On 2 October 2006, it was reported that four council workers were instructed to go
into room 11 of the council offices where ballot boxes were temporarily stored, to
search for documents,” he said.
Kalumiana pointed out that they had presented the matter to the police commanding
officer Mr. Muzwenga but the police did not act on the report.
“Todate, nothing has been done by the police as they said that they were still
investigating,” he said.
Kalumiana said allegations made by Lungwangwa that he had misused the rice donated
by the Indian government annoyed him very much especially that the latter is a blood
relative.
“The first respondent is my blood relative and we have known each other for a long
time. The allegations made me feel very bad,” complained Kalumiana.
ZANIS
