Court saves MP Ralph Jooma

The High Court sitting in Blantyre Wednesday dismissed an application by Malawi Congress Party’s aspiring parliamentarian in the May 21 2019 parliamentary election Gerald Kazembe, who wanted it to nullify results of Mangochi Monkey-Bay Constituency election.

Kazembe had challenged the election of Democratic Progressive Party Member of Parliament Ralph Jooma.

The ruling, which High Court Judge Jack N’riva made, came as an unpleasant surprise to Kazembe, who vowed to appeal the matter at the Supreme Court of Appeal.

“Our next step from here is to take the matter to the Supreme Court of Appeal,” he said.

Jooma said he was pleased with the court’s decision.

“I am grateful for the earlier victory in 2019. I am grateful again for this victory. This case has always surprised me since day one. A case must have a basis and an origin. During the voting in Monkey-Bay, there were no complaints as well as during counting but, as soon as the results were tallied at the Tally Centre, complaints started coming in. The judge has proven that the case was a fabrication,” he said.

In 2019, Jooma won the parliamentary elections in the constituency with 9, 341 votes while Kazembe got 9, 052 votes.

However, Kazembe argued that there was bias during the vote-counting process, adding that Jooma had supplied ballot papers to some centres where he [Kazembe] had a large following.

However, the court did not find merit in these allegations.