By PERPETUAL SICHIKWENKWE –
THE Supreme Court has declared Mushili Malama as the duly elected MMD Member of Parliament (MP) for Chitambo constituency during the September 11, 2011 general elections.
PF losing candidate for Chitambo, Chanda Mutale had petitioned the election of Mr Malama alleging that he engaged in corrupt practices in order to win the parliamentary seat.
The High Court had dismissed Mr Chanda’s petition by declaring Mr Mushili the duly elected candidate but he was dissatisfied with the outcome and appealed to the Supreme Court.
Delivering the judgment yesterday on behalf of a panel of five judges, Mr Justice Gregory Phiri dismissed Mr Chanda’s appeal saying it had no merit.
Mr Justice Phiri said that the lower court could not be faulted over its findings because Mr Chanda failed to prove the allegations he leveled against Mr Malama.
“This appeal therefore fails in its entirety and we dismiss it. We uphold the decision of the lower court and declare that Mushili Malama was the duly elected as Member of Parliament for Chitambo” Mr Justice Phiri said.
He said Mr Chanda and his witnesses failed to prove to the court that Mr Malama bribed the electorate to influence them to vote for him.
He said some of the witnesses whom Mr Chanda called to testify on his behalf agreed that they were given money by one of Mr Malama’s agents but they told the court that they did not tell anyone about it although they used the money for their personal gain.
Mr Justice Phiri said this being the case, only four people could have been influenced to vote for Mr Malama and not others.
Meanwhile, losing PF candidate for Milanzi constituency Musa Banda and MMD Milanzi parliamentarian Whiteson Banda have entered a consent judgment to have a petition appeal withdrawn from the Supreme Court.
The consent was entered in the Supreme Court where Mr Musa Banda had appealed against the Lusaka High Court’s decision to declare Mr Whiteson Banda the duly elected MP for Milanzi.
Mr Banda had on May 8, 2012 filed an appeal to the Supreme Court against the High Courts’ decision to declare Mr Musa Banda the duly elected MP for Milanzi under the MMD ticket.
This was after the Lusaka High Court judge Christine Phiri dismissed all allegations against Mr Whiteson Banda because the petitioner failed to prove his case to the required standard of probabilities.