A BY-ELECTION is looming following the Supreme Court’s decision to nullify the Mulobezi Parliamentary seat which was held by United Party for National Development (UPND) Member of Parliament Hastings Sililo in Western Province on grounds that his election was characterized with corrupt activities.
Supreme Court Judge Elizabeth Muyovwe in handling down the judgment yesterday nullified the election of Mr Sililo on grounds that his victory was marred with bribery and other forms of electoral malpractices.
Justice Muyovwe said the trial judge misdirected herself when she did not prove that there was wide spread tendency of giving out gifts and donations in the constituency, before, during and after elections.
She said the lower court errored in Law and facts when it found that the malpractice activities of blanket and mattress donations that took place in Mulobezi were done prior to the election date.
“The grounds of appeal on the donations of mattresses and blankets in some wards of the constituency succeeds in accordance with section 79 (1), (c) and (d) of the Electoral Act and the seat is accordingly nullified,” judge Muyovwe said.
Mr Sililo’s election was petitioned by losing Patriotic Front (PF) candidate Albertina Pota Mwanamwalye in the High Court where Judge Anesi Bobo-Banda threw out the petition with costs.
Ms Mwanamwalye then decided to appeal against the High Court decision that threw out her petition with costs.
Judge Muyovwe also dismissed the allegations against Mr Sililo in which the petitioner had contended that he was distributing monies as bribes to electorates and in turn asked them to vote for him because the said allegations were not proved.
Ms Mwanamwalye in her appeal submissions raised allegations ranging from threats, bribery, distribution of campaign materials and public resources, to vote buying had not been proved.
She asked the court to nullify Mr Sililo’s seat on grounds that his victory was characterised by bribery, threats and all other electoral malpractices, contrary to the electoral laws.
Ms Mwanamwalye said the alleged malpractices were done by the UPND party officials and that the dates which were so confusing to the court were only confirmed by other witnesses who proved that Mr Sililo had engaged himself in malpractices.
She said the KR50 which was alleged to have been given to one witness who confirmed in court was not substantiated by any other evidence apart from the said money which the court doubted where it came from.
And Mr Sililo has described as disappointing the courts’ ruling but said that he would respect the Supreme Court’s decision as it was a final court and could only think of going back to the drawing board as he pondered on the next decision.
iliko bad!!! pa zed yayayayayay!
Why don’t we just have new General elections as it seems the last ones were marred by corruption.? So are the Feira results going to be nullified if PF wins the elections as Wynter Kabimba was reported to have made donations to a church and community organisations ‘before the bye-
election date’?
Nullify Sata’s election too and all these zambian difficulties and expensive by elections will end.Zambia is on the abyss.
Subsside isebenze manje.its too much.
More Seats for Pf, twageta, nafuti nafuti
And you expect the Budget to perform well and achieve targets? I am sure this Financial year’s Budget will have record high deficit never seen in history of Zambia, and as a matter of fact more by-elections are coming.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is why we must rid our nation of corruption, it is very costly and the biggest culprit is the MMD. Now, even HH’s UPND is involved. If we want to see development in our nation, every one of us must rise up and fight this scourge, regardless of whoever is involved. I do hope that our new constitution will adequately deal with this issue and eliminate bye-elections altogether because it is such a drain on our country’s resources.
Christopher. Well said!
Christopher, well said. Needless to add anything