By CAROLINE KALOMBE
PATRIOTIC Front (PF) member Leonard Banda has asked the Supreme Court to cite MMD president Nevers Mumba for contempt of court for allegedly issuing a scandalous statement on the nullification of some parliamentary election results.
This is contained in a notice of motion filed in the Supreme Court by Mr Banda, who lost the Petauke parliamentary election during the 2011 general elections.
Recently the Supreme Court discharged Dr Mumba after he was found guilty of contempt of court.
Mr Banda wants Dr Mumba to be cited for contempt for issuing contemptuous statements over the nullification of the Petauke Central parliamentary seat which was held by Dora Siliya.
Dr Mumba made the remarks when he featured on Radio Phoenix’s Let the People Talk programme.
Mr Banda said the remarks were not influenced by a letter which was written by Minister of Justice Wynter Kabimba which had attached a legal opinion on the position of candidates who lost their seats because of election malpractice and corruption.
He said Mr Mumba issued the remarks long before Mr Kabimba wrote the said letter.
Mr Banda wants the court to clarify that the contemptuous statements issued by Dr Mumba were made on June 30, 2012 and July 2, 2012 and that Mr Kabimba’s letter was written on August 1, 2012.
He also wants the court to clarify that the letter was an event after the fact and therefore could not be used to purge Dr Mumba’s contempt.
Mr Banda wants a clarification that there was no evidence of perception laid before the court and that considerations relating to the perception that the letter may have created was undesirable.
“The contemnor’s statement were not prompted by the Minister’s letter and as submitted earlier, the letter cannot be the basis for purging the contemnors contempt but his unreserved apology and retraction of the statement he made,” Mr Banda said.
Dr Mumba was discharged on grounds that his actions were influenced by Minister of Justice Kabimba’s actions when he wrote a letter attached with a legal opinion from the Solicitor General to the judiciary.
It is alleged that Mr Kabimba’s letter influenced the judiciary public relations officer to issue a statement on nullified parliamentary seats and consequently for the registrar of the High Court to write to the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) to bar candidates whose seats were nullified by the court.
“We are uncomfortable and worried that this letter and the legal opinion were copied to the acting Chief Justice Lombe Chibesakunda. In our view, it is not in order for an intending litigant to send a letter and legal opinion, relating to intended litigation, to a member of the court,” Mr Justice Mwanamwambwa said in his judgment.
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