FORMER Mines minister Maxwell Mwale has lost his Malambo parliamentary seat after the Supreme Court upheld the decision to nullify his election.
Supreme Court Judge Elizabeth Muyovwe said there were widespread electoral malpractices during the campaign for the September 2011 elections.
In her judgment delivered yesterday, the judge also dismissed all the seven grounds of appeal filed by Mwale as they lacked merit and were based on hearsay.
This was in an election petition in which Patriotic Front (PF)’s Kaweche Kaunda, son of first Republican President Kenneth Kaunda, had petitioned the election of Mwale, citing electoral malpractices.
Ms Justice Muyovwe, who delivered the appeal judgment, said the majority voters were prevented from exercising their free will to elect a candidate of their choice.
Other judges present during the delivery of judgment were acting Chief Justice Lombe Chibesakunda, her deputy Florence Mumba, Marvin Mwanamwambwa, Hildah Chibomba and Gregory Phiri.
“This court upholds the High Court decision of nullifying the seat. There were illegal acts committed by the appellants, unfairly prejudicing the respondents and other candidates from taking part in the elections and in turn affected the final results,” she said.
Ms Justice Muyovwe said the appellant had disadvantaged the other candidates due to his philanthropic and charitable donations during the period preceding the elections, which were beyond mere donations.
The court said the lower court rightfully found that Mr Kaunda had proved his petition in accordance with Section 93 (2),(a) of the Electoral Act and declared the same as void.
Mwale’s seat was nullified by High Court Judge Albert Wood on grounds that there were corrupt activities such as distribution of bicycles prior to and after the 2011 general elections.
In his petition, Mr Kaunda contended that the former minister’s election was influenced by bribery and vote-buying.
Witnesses in the matter testified how money was dished out to voters, about 300 metres from one polling station on the polling day.
Mr Justice Wood had in his judgment noted that it was not possible that 1,000 bicycles could be distributed as charity to people in a constituency.
Well done judge
Some cows will blame the PF for this bye-election!! MMD and RB’s corruption is to blame for the nullification of this seat.
Maxwell Mwale is popular in the constituency and he will certainly retain the seat if allowed to recontest.Go for it Max!!!
What a tragedy!
Found with a case to answer and now the nullification of his seat.
Ba Judge you were not there when we were voting. There were about five candidates who contested for the seat and Mr. Mwale won that seat. Elections were conducted in a peaceful and fair manner. Kaweche can not win an election here in Malambo. Only His late brother WEZI was a man. Kaweche is childish and people behind him are playing a Dont Kubeba style. PF should find a better person and not Kaweche.
He`s going down fast.
Time wasters. They knew they were corrupt and used corruption to ascend to power. Passage of time has solutions. You are fired, you are no more, you are history, Goodbye.
take a rest max you have maximised alot of weath thru corruption and now join us we show u how make your end living prudently & honestly
poor Zambia when does the country get to move forward
all these useless by elections, now only less than 3 years
there ‘ll be general elections,
Let us have another general elections. Period. It too much.
in fact Zambians should petition the presidential election it mound with deceit and liars that within 90 days this and that will be done. More money in our pockets, reduced taxes which is not true
It is sad to note that while the majority of Zambians are hoping that one day Tax payers money will be ploughed back into our almost dead economy, the opposite is what is taking place. I remember during the time of FTJ, when a cabinet minister appeared on ZNBC to announce to the nation after receiving money from donors, they used to mispronounce the word ‘wrong’ by saying,”thing donation will go a ‘long’ way. In actual sense all funds dnotated went a wrong way. Tuchili tuletamba.
We are courting disaster.Which of these elections were fairly won?What if they the losers were dishing money pretending to be the winner,s agent?Common judges!You got this one wrong!Ekupwa kwa Zambia.Its disgusting.What justice is this?The sanest thing is to go for a general election to curb these bye elections.Its unbelievable.GOD SAVE ZAMBIA.
This has to be the most flawed reasoning I have encountered this week! And believe me there is a lot of flawed reasoning on these blogs. The chap bribed his way into parliament and has been found guilty, why do you want to protect him? Were you part of his campaign team and thus are guilty of corruption as well? This chap sold mining rights to our minerals and in return received billions of kwacha and thousands of bicycles to bribe people like you so he can be called honourable Mwale who would have done nothing for our people. Pathetic individual just like you sir/madam!
Corruption was the order of the day in the last years of MMD rule! It was just take it as long as you are not seen. What ever goes up should come down. My brother , Mwale rest and chew whatever you have put in your pocket from the time you assumed office as MP and Minister
hard lucky maxiwell show us if at all it was geniune win.