The Constitutional Court has discarded the video evidence in the Munali election petition appeal, which was resubmitted after being lost, on grounds that it may be contaminated.

The video footage in question was the basis for the nullification of Higher Education Minister Professor Nkandu Luo’s seat in November 2016 on grounds that violence shrouded the polls.

Two weeks ago, Prof Luo’s lawyer Bonaventure Mutale swore affidavit verifying the non availability of the video clip and asked the court to go ahead without it.

But Doreen Mwamba, who was the UPND candidate in the election, insisted that the video be re-submitted.

Constitutional Court judge Enock Mulembe had ordered the submission of the video clips saying the video was critical to the appeal.

But a panel of three judges has u-turned against its order to have the video evidence submitted and admitted as evidence.
ConCourt vice president Annie Sitali ruled that the court would proceed to hear the main matter without the video evidence.
Judge Sitali said it had been agreed that the video evidence should not be admitted as there was a possibility that the video evidence might be contaminated.

This was after both parties in the matter failed to agree on the content of the video.

Professor Luo had denied the contents of the video claiming that some of the scenes were missing while Mwamba maintained that the evidence has not been tampered with.

The electoral commission had not taken any side over the footage but relied on the courts guidance.