Sebastian Kinyondo versus Dr Medard Mutungi; Civil Appeal No 83 of 1998; Court of Appeal of Tanzania at Dar es Salaam (Unreported).
- Evidence
- Witnesses – Contradiction of witnesses – effect.
- Election Petition
- Defamation –Defamation in election campaigns – whether ground for avoidance of an election.
- Grounds – New matters not pleaded introduced in evidence- whether allowed in election petitions.
Held:-
(i) Differences of testimonies of witnesses of what they heard in a public rally cannot affect veracity of the witnesses if the essence is the same.
(ii) A victory however large, obtained following defamatory utterances, cannot be sustained, the uncalled for defamations are grounds to avoid the election results.
(iii) If a candidate at an election chooses as his election tactics to vilify his opponent by accusing him of criminal conduct, and it is proved that he did so, then he will have done so as his own risk. The court will assume that the allegations adversely affected the other candidate’s election campaign unless the person making the allegations proves that they did not.
(iv) Once a new matter is introduced it is perfectly good evidence. A trial court is not precluded from dealing with a ground of complaint which has not been pleaded (Rule 6 of the Election Rules).