SUNDAY COURT BLITZ
….Ndola High Court visits flashpoint schools under heavy guard before fixing final judgment date after marathon weekend showdown
By DAVID KANDUZA
IN an unprecedented Sunday, October 11 2026, marathon session that pushed deep into the night, the Ndola High Court officially wrapped up its high-stakes inquiry into the contested Ndola Central parliamentary seat, setting the stage for a final verdict that could reshape the city’s political landscape.
The extraordinary weekend sitting culminated at 19:35 hours after the court traded the bench for the battlefield, embarking on an intensive physical tour of three volatile constituency flashpoints to verify allegations of systemic voter intimidation and blood-stained clashes.
The atmosphere was palpable as the court headed by Judge Mwamba Chanda moved through the contested polling zones.
At Chibolele Primary School, the incumbent Member of Parliament, Emmanuel Mulenga, found himself directly defending a grim piece of photographic evidence showing panicked voters fleeing for their lives.
“The gate itself was heavily manned by police officers,” Mr Mulenga testified, fighting off claims that his direct agents orchestrated the chaos.
He maintained that while supporters traded missiles outside the perimeter, the fleeing crowd captured in the photos was merely reacting to spontaneous external violence.
At Nkwazi Primary School, standing exactly 100 metres from the school grounds, a defiant Mr Mulenga threw down the gauntlet to the petitioner, Frank Tayali of the United Party for National Development (UPND).
“Bring forward the witnesses,” Mr Mulenga challenged, demanding that the petitioner produce voters living with disabilities from that specific district to positively identify who cast the stones.
The scene grew even more tense as the court moved to Shila Dere Road—the strategic nerve centre for the Resolute Party.
Here, Mr Mulenga painted a picture of a calculated ambush, testifying that a truck had been deliberately positioned to blockade the roadway.
“We pleaded for peace but were attacked with stones,” Mr Mulenga told the court, claiming his team strictly followed the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) directives before being forced to flee to safety and report the matter to the police.
He argued the entire incident was a pre-planned assault designed to cripple his command centre.
Back within the formal confines of the courtroom later that afternoon, Mr Mulenga pointed to the physical structures of the schools as silent witnesses to his innocence, noting that a rooftop inspection revealed almost no stones on the classrooms, save for Ntumbachushi.
The heat inside the courtroom matched the friction on the streets.
During a blistering cross-examination of the lawmaker, tempers flared to the point of judicial intervention.
The presiding Judge Chanda stepped in firmly, cutting off the petitioner’s legal team and ordering them to stick to “progressive questions” to salvage dwindling court time
The defense received a massive boost when the ECZ took the stand to systematically dismantle the petitioner’s narrative.
Fredrick Musonda (52), a seasoned teacher who served as the constituency’s Returning Officer, delivered explosive testimony that directly flatly contradicted Mr Tayali’s version of events.
“I remained at the main totaling centre at Kansenshi Secondary School with all stakeholders,” Mr Musonda testified confidently.
He flatly denied that vote counting or results announcements were ever abandoned due to looming violence, clarifying instead that he only paused operations due to a standard administrative directive.
In a final twist, Mr Musonda looked across the courtroom and directly contradicted Mr Tayali’s personal alibi, stating that despite claims of being huddled safely at home during the tense final announcement, the UPND candidate was physically present in the room.
Despite the ECZ’s robust defense, election officials did concede to one chilling irregularity: an official report where an active voter arrived at the booths only to discover that a ghost voter had already cast a ballot in his name.
The court heard the matter was immediately escalated to the Town Clerk for investigation.
With the docket of evidence now officially closed, the legal war moves to the printing presses.
The Ndola High Court has locked both legal teams into a strict, fast-tracked schedule to file their final written arguments: October 16, 2026: Deadline for the respondents (Emmanuel Mulenga and the ECZ) to file their submissions.
While October 23, 2026: Deadline for the petitioner (Frank Tayali) to submit his final response.
November 27, 2026: The provisional date locked in for the final judgment, though the court dropped a final hint that the verdict could drop as early as the third week of November.