The long awaited judgement in the case where former president Frederick Chiluba is charged with corruption has again been adjourned to Monday. The Judgment was initially set for July 20th before being moved to today Friday the 14th.

State Prosecutor Mutembo Nchito said the reason of the delay was not clear. He told the media that he did not know why the judge is not ready for the case and he is going to learn about the details.

And  Chiluba’s spokesman Emmanuel Mwamba echoed the same sentiments. Mr Mwanba told the media that the judgement was deferred because Ndola High Court deputy registrar Johns Chinyama, who is sitting as magistrate in the Chiluba case, had indicated that he was not ready to pass the judgment yet.

“He called all the lawyers to his chambers and announced that he was not yet ready. So we don’t know what that means, if it’s him who is not ready or the judgment. He just said I am not yet ready,” Mwamba said.

Scores of people and Chiluba’s family members this morning came to the magistrate’s court to witness the landmark judgment involving the former Republican president.

Chiluba is charged with Access Financial Services Limited director Faustine Kabwe and Aaron Chungu with the theft of public resources totalling several millions of dollars.

The MMD is poised for victory in yesterday’s Chitambo parliamentary by-election. The MMD candidate Dr Solomon Musonda is leading with over 1, 000 votes against his main competitor, opposition PF’s candidate. There are only 3 polling stations left for counting and it is unlikely there are  enough numbers to offset the margin by the opposition.

Vice President George Kunda has launched a victory celebration for the MMD.  Mr Kunda commended the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) for emerging victorious in the just ended Chitambo parliamentary by-elections.

Mr. Kunda says the victory in the Chitambo by-elections was clear indication of how strong the MMD is in the country.

The Vice President was speaking on his arrival at Livingstone airport this morning.

Mr. Kunda said the victory had also shown that MMD was a force to reckon in the country’s political arena adding that the ruling party was ready for the 2011 general elections.

Meanwhile, Mr. Kunda has described the Patriotic Front (PF)-United Party for National Development (UPND) pact as weak.

He said the PF-UPND pact does not save the interest of all its members but that of PF President Michael Sata and UPND Leader Hakainde Hichilema.

Meanwhile The opposition Patriotic Front (PF) has retained the Chilyapa and Muchinka ward seats in Mansa.[quote]

PF candidates, Fabian Chibela for the Chilyapa ward and Stephen Chenda for the Muchinka ward emerged victorious in yesterday’s polls.

Chibela and Chenda were declared winners in their respective wards by returning officer Christopher Mumba at the Civic Center last night.

Chibela polled 746 votes followed by ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) candidate Sydney Chama who got 355 votes while United Independence Party (UNIP) candidate only managed to scoup 57 votes.

And the Muchinka ward seat was retained after PF candidate Chenda polled 594 votes beating MMD’s Babra Chilufya with 204 votes while Sylvester Mubanga for UNIP scouped 49 votes.

The Muchinka ward fell vacant after the then PF councillor, Cornelius Musenge was convicted of theft by public servant by the courts of law.

Mr Musenge was convicted last year for stealing cement and funds meant for construction of a bridge and purchasing of a bus for Mansa Secondary School in his ward.

While the Chilyapa ward became vacant after the death of its councillor Loyd Kanjelesa early this year.

And in Choma the opposition, United Party for National Development (UPND) has retained the State-land ward seat in Choma.

Announcing the results last night at 21.50 hours, Returning officer, George Samihamba declared UPND candidate, Dorcas Mushala, winner after she polled 355 votes against Choma MMD’s district secretary Andrew Siamayuwa who managed 255 votes.

Mr Samihamba described the by-election as incident free.

The seat fell vacant after the death of UPND councilor, Fair Hachilili who died early this year.

Meanwhile, there was jubilation among UPND cadres at the Civic Centre in Choma last night after Ms Mushala was declared winner.

UPND Deputy national vice chairperson for elections, Phillip Mambo told supporters that this was the beginning of greater things to come resulting from the PF/UPND pact.

And in Kalomo the United Party for National Development (UPND) has scooped the Mayoba ward by- elections in yesterday’s polls.

Announcing the results last night at about 23:30 hours at Kalomo High School, returning officer, Richard Mbwainga declared Phinias Silokomela of the UPND/PF supported pact victorious with 457 votes.

The MMD candidate, Ozars Siakasasa got 367 while Denias Gumbo of UNIP trailed with 14 votes out of a total of 848 votes cast.10 votes were rejected in the five polling stations from the total votes cast.

The seat fell vacant after the death of UPND councilor, Bernard Mazuba some time this year.

And the voter turn out in the polls in both wards was characterized by apathy in comparison to figures of last year’s presidential by elections.

ZANIS

Editor’s Note:

The video was encoded at a high resolution and may load very slowly or even not load at all for people in Zambia that are on slow networks run by  most of the ISPs in Zambia. The only ISPs where you will be able to easily watch the clip are ZAMNET, if you are on their new fibre optic link, and the POST Newspaper run ISP. As for the rest good luck.

Yes you could load the video if you are on Africonnect and Zain ISPs, but these organisation use a billing method hell bent on making shareholders happy and perpetuating the digital divide agenda among Zambians. They cap your downloads and this video clip will certainly chew up a big chunk of your monthly cap on these networks. Sorry we had to say this. We just feel strong about this  issue and believe bandwidth capping is so stone age and stifles innovation in ICT industry on the Zambia market. Undoubtedly it fattens the pockets of the players involved and keeps the shareholders happy, but at what expense?

The Internet usage in Zambia is so dismal. Focus should be to make it grow and everybody involved will benefit. Stunting growth and usage with caps will not help this cause.

By the way CAPPING is when an ISP dictate how much you can download from the INTERNET and if you exceed the quota, they slap you with a heavy bill or just cut you off completely. This practice is very rampant in developing economies.

That’s our blog on ICT in Zambia

The PF has scouped the Twatasha ward by-elections in Chingola Constituency on the Copperbelt.

PF candidate George Sichula polled 236 ballots, while Edward Kaluba of All People’s Congress Party (APCP) polled 221.

MMD candidate Oliver Kasama managed to get 195. Six ballots were rejected.

A total of 658 ballots were cast out of 2221 registered voters in the ward.

Returning officer, Nelson Sikela, announced the results this evening and declared Sichula as councillor for Twatasha ward.

The Twatasha ward seat fell vacant after the death of the incumbent, councillor Michale Mitola, who was also former Chingola Mayor, early tis year.

The elections were characterized by apathy, and no vote rigging was reported.

Earlier today, voting in the local government by-elections in Livingstone had been characterized by low turn out, ruling out the attainment of a 50 per cent total vote at each polling station.

A check by ZANIS this afternoon at three of the four polling stations in Maramba ward found polling assistants at ease as voters continued to pour in at intervals.

According to a presiding officer at Maramba Welfare polling station, Ian Mabuku, the number of voters had been reducing with the progression of the day.

By press time this afternoon, only about 230 people had cast their votes from 1,100 registered voters at Maramba Welfare polling station.

However, Mr Mabuku described the voting procedure as incident-free.

“The voting procedure has been incident-free with no rough experiences yet,” he said.

He anticipated late voting, adding that voters have a tendency of rushing to vote when the time for voting is almost closing.

Another presiding officer at Maramba West ‘A’, expressed worry at the low turn out at her polling station.

Ms Bibian Nyendwa said the situation was, however, improving in the afternoon as 84 out of 411 registered voters had cast their vote by press time.

Maramba West ‘B’ had captured 176 voters out of 860 registered voters by press time.

Presiding officer George Kumoyo told ZANIS that polling assistants had not experienced pressure from voters since the station opened at 06:00 hours in the morning.

Maramba Ward seat fell vacant following the death of MMD councillor Fred Lungu.

And voting in Kikonge ward in Mufumbwe district had started on a busy note as several residents showed up to cast their votes.

The seat fell vacant when Kikonge ward councilor, Moses Magisha of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) resigned to the ruling Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) and is re-contesting the seat.

Mr Magisha is being challenged by Bruce Kanema, of the United Pact for National Development (UPND/PF) pact.

A check at Kikonge and Nyasoso polling station found several voters casting their votes.

Kikonge polling assistant, Munalula Ngula told ZANIS that voting started at 06:00 hours and will end at 18 hours.

Ms Ngula said she was happy with the voter turnout while a check by ZANIS at Nyasoso polling station found more voters casting their votes.

Both candidates expressed confidence of scooping the seat.

And MMD National Deputy Chairman, Kabinda Pande expressed confidence that the MMD candidate would carry the day because of the many developmental projects the party had put in place.

Mr Pande who is also Foreign Affairs Minister said the opposition had nothing to offer the Zambian people, adding that the ruling party was not shaken by the pact or alliance.

Mr Pande said PF President Michael Sata and UPND President Hakainde Hichilema were bent on telling lies hence the need for the Kikonge voters not to vote for the opposition.

ZANIS