A parliamentary aspirant who lost UTM primaries in Likoma and Chizumulu Islands has dumped the party accusing the committee that was administering the primaries of jeopardizing the elections.
The aspirant Professor Vincent Boma Chirwa lost to Edith Mzoma by 263 to 5 votes during the primaries which were conducted on Tuesday at Likoma Youth Centre Hall in Mbamba area Traditional Authority (T/A) Mkumpha 3.
During the polls, drama took over the arena where the elections were being conducted as Boma Chirwa discharged from the venue over allegations that elections were not free and fair.
Speaking in an interview when asked to comment on the grounds regarding his action, Boma accused the executive committee for the elections of stopping some of his supporters from voting for him by locking them outside the hall to favor Edith Mzoma who defeated him with a landslide.
“The elections were not free and fair; they were determined to make sure that I fail. We are going to have two camps due to this reason,” lamented Boma.
He continued to say that his failure to emerge the victor during the primaries also originated from the fact that he refused to contribute MK500, 000 prior to the elections.
He said: “They demanded me to contribute MK500, 000 of which I refused to give because I was not certain about the purpose for the requested money.”
Reacting on the matter, the presiding officer for the primaries who is also acting deputy secretary for UTM in the northern region Zikani Moyo dismissed the claims raised by Boma saying the allegations were clueless as the executive committee had to follow the jurisdiction by allowing not more than nine people to enter the hall from each area.
“Those are just allegations, the rule of law entails that people have to come in as delegates representing an area on a limited number of which we followed and not everyone,” explained Moyo.
When asked to articulate on claims that some executive members were demanding the sum of MK500,000.00 from Boma on non-clarified reasons, Moyo shrugged the accusations pointing out that he never came across such information regarding the case.
Despite the irregularities, Moyo advised the candidates who will represent the party in the upcoming tripartite elections to work in harmony by promoting peace among the members in order to form a strong and peaceful United Transformation Movement.
On the councillorship position, Stanly Chigona defeated Joseph Chizoma with 175 to 3 votes in Likoma ward whereas Harrison Kaluja went unopposed in Chizumulu ward.
