Maravi

I won without bribery - Magande

I won without bribery - Magande
By Inonge Noyoo
Tuesday July 31, 2007 [04:00]

FINANCE minister Ng’an-du Magande yesterday boasted that he won the Chilanga seat without bribery or corruption. And losing UDA candidate Captain Cosmas Moono said he did not rule out a long wrong judgement. Addressing jubilant MMD cadres after Lusaka High Court judge Marvin Mwanamwambwa dismissed the petition of UDA’s Capt Moono and Patriotic Front’s Priscilla Kamanga against him, Magande - who could not hide his joy at the judgment - said as the High Court had stated, he won the elections without cheating anybody.

“Let me take this opportunity to thank all of you who made time to come up to the High Court to hear the judgment on the petition raised on your decision that you made on 28th September. We have come out of the High Court, one of the highest legal institutions in the land, and it has been declared that your decision, your action on the 28th of September was indeed without bribery, without corruption and that you chose me to be your member of parliament,” he said.

Magande assured the cadres that he would continue doing the job that President Mwanawasa gave him.

“I promised to help you once you elected me. I want to assure you that even while the High Court case was going on, I have been in the constituency working. So now that this is over, I want to go back to the job that President Mwanawasa gave me. My job is to make sure that I bring development to Zambia. All that I want to ask of all MMD members is that we must now work hard so that even those who wasted our time coming to the High Court and wanted us to be their enemies, we show them that they need us and we can look after them,” he said.

Magande said he intended to ask President Mwanawasa to start touring and seeing the projects in the various parts of the country where money had been released.
“I want you to work with me and work with President Mwanawasa so that the next four years we bring development,” he said.

But Capt Moono said he expected the judgment to come out the way it did because it had taken too long.

“I foresaw the ruling. A child is born after nine months but in this case it has taken too long. I did not rule out a long wrong judgement,” he said.
Asked if he would appeal, Capt Moono said he would have to consult with other stakeholders; the lawyers, the party and fellow petitioners. The other petitioner, Kamanga could not be reached for comment as she had left the court while the judgment was being delivered.

And judge Mwanamwambwa warned journalists against inaccurate quotations of his judgment.

Delivering the four-hour judgment, judge Mwanamwambwa said he had found that there was no bribery and corruption as defined by the electoral Act.
He said he had found and held that the proven non-compliances with the Act did not warrant nullifying the election result.

“In my view, Honourable Magande won the parliamentary election because the opposition split the votes among themselves. He did not win the election because of alleged rampant bribery and corruption and anomalies at the polling stations. Evidence on record shows that out of 17,883 valid votes cast, Honourable Magande got 6,478 votes.

This is less than 50 per cent of the total valid votes cast. The opposition candidates shared among themselves 11,405 votes,” he said. “In effect the majority of voters in the constituency voted against him. I think he would have lost if the opposition had not split votes. I hold that the petitioners have not proved their case to the required standard.”

Judge Mwanamwambwa ordered the petitioners to pay costs of the proceedings that would be taxed in default of agreement.

“I wish to add that had this petition succeeded on account of improper or malafide breach of Act by the electoral officers, I would have ordered such officers to pay costs of the proceedings. I would have made such order under section 105(2) of the Act,” he said.

Judge Mwanamwambwa dismissed all the 62 allegations against Magande and said too many allegations were pleaded. He also dismissed allegations that there were excess ballot papers not accounted for and that there were excess ballot papers.

“On a proper consideration of the law and evidence, not all that was pleaded and said ought to have been pleaded. Some of the allegations that were pleaded were not petitionable grounds under the law,” he said.

Judge Mwanamwambwa said some of the allegations made the election petition unnecessarily voluminous.

Capt Moono and Kamanga had petitioned the election of Magande as duly elected member of parliament for Chilanga Constituency. The duo alleged that prior to the elections, Magande engaged in corrupt activities contrary to section 78 and 81 of the electoral Act number 12 of 2001 in a bid to procure an election for himself. The two asked the court to declare Magande’s election null and void and conduct fresh elections for the area in full compliance of the law in an environment devoid of corruption. The candidates who contested the parliamentary elections for the area were John Ziba (Reform Party), Henry Muyoba (independent), Kamanga, Capt Moono and Magande.

Labels: CADRES, COSMAS MOONO, COURTS, MAGANDE, UDA

posted by MrK @ 4:07 AM