LUSAKA — Kwacha constituency member of parliament Joseph Malanji is bullish that the nullification of his seat is a temporal setback as he has instructed his legal team to appeal the High Court ruling.
Malanji said he possesses the grade 12 Certificate as there is no way he would have successfully filed in nominations and contested the parliamentary seat if he did not have it.
He said in an interview on Friday that the Court was categorical that the Electoral Commission of Zambia was in conformity with the electoral process.
“It’s unfortunate that we have to come to a level where we are right now. The court has erred because it was very categorical that the Electoral Commission of Zambia was in conformity with the electoral process,” he said.
“And when we were in Court we had already passed the stage of eligibility. Fourteen (14) days from filling in of nomination is the period allocated to address the issue of eligibility so how does it arise at this stage.”
Malanji, alias Bonanza, said it was within the Court’s discretion to subpoena the Examination Council of Zambia and or the Electoral Commission of Zambia for validation.
“Am just coming from the Examination Council of Zambia to make sure that the documents availed to the Court are fresh as opposed to the ones I certified prior to the elections” he said.
“It is very unfortunate that we have to go through this part because the matter in Court was not about eligibility. It was about the alleged violence during the elections and not about eligibility.”
He charged that the question of the grade 12 Certificate only arose on the last day when winding up proceedings and he did not have chance to get back to Lusaka to get his qualifications.
